Hi my daughter has a son 9 years old and he has not seen his biological father since he was 2 weeks old when he sold of all his and my daughters possessions and ran off with another girl leaving my daughter his wife and his son penniless. She divorced him 12 months later changing her name back to her maiden name and changing her son's name at the same time. He signed papers agreeing to this at the same time as agreeing to the divorce.
My daughter has been living with her partner now for 6 years and they have 2 other children together and are booked to marry early next year. Both the younger children carry her partners name and she will change hers on her marriage. They have spoken to her son and asked if he would like to change his name to the same as the rest of the family at the time of the marriage. He has said that he would. Ideally her husband to be would like to adopt her son, who thinks of him as his dad as he has been this for six years indeed he has known no other.
The problem is she has no contact whatsoever with her exhusband and the CSA has only ever managed to get 2 payments out of his in 9 years for child support.
She would love her husband to be to adopt her son but does not know how to go about getting his permission and is afraid of opening up a can of worms.

Have you read any of the several threads here on this issue. Your question is really not new and has been dealt with several times. The laws differ from area to area, but the bottomline is that she first has to get the bio father's rights terminated. How to do this and how difficult it will be depends on the laws in your area.

She will need an attroney to petititon the court for adoption, so just put the whole thing in the attorney's hands. They can advise how to go about getting the rights terminated.