Hello, this is my first post here. I'm looking for info on terminating parental rights. My husband of 8 years would like to adopt my 10 yo son. His bio father has not seen or been in contact with him since he was 6 months. He has never paid support. I was going to work with a lawyer because my husband wanted to adopt him, but we could not afford the fees and the $1500 home study we were told we had to have. Because we were doing this I got into contact with the bio father and he is more than willing(even eager) to sign away his parental rights. Anyone have any ideas of a cost effective way to resolve this mess? My husband is military and it's caused issues before with passports and such. Plus my son keeps asking if he could please have the same last name. Any help would be appreciated. Oh it's Nebraska law.

Ok, so you joined the site a few minutes ago. Whenever I join a new site like this, I browse around and get a sense of the way the site is used before I post. If I have a question, I do a search to see if similar questions have been previously asked. Had you done so, you probably wouldn't have had to post since this is a frequently asked question.

Generally you need a lawyer to prepare the adoption petition. That the bio father is willing to relinquish is a plus. But it doesn't mean you can get away without an attorney.

I would shop around, don't talk to only one lawyer. Also talk to people at your Family Court, find out from them if there is something you can do. See if the bio father would contribute to the atty fees (you might hold support payments over his head to induce his kicking in).