All right here goes...

My husband of 4 years is wanting to adopt my 8 year old daughter. She herself has been asking when she can have her "daddy's" last name. Her Biological father is listed on her birth certificate though we were never married. We did get a court ordered Child support paper drawn up in August of 2001, in July of 03 I had to contact a private agency in Tx called Support Kids and they got almost a year of child support from him. The last payment was made in May of 04 and that is also the last time we heard from him. I have hired a PI, Support kids tries every 10 days to contact him and I also paid for a Public Data website to try to find him. He has no paper trail... What are my options about Relinquishing his rights so my husband can adopt her? Do I HAVE to get a laywer or can I do it myself? And, what steps do I need to take if I can do it myself?

Tired in Central TX

I don't know for sure but I think you do need to contact a lawyer.

You will be able to try, what happens, the local court there will have a requirement for attempts to find, to be served court papers, if after a certain amount of attempts, they can normally post a notice in the legal section of the news paper.

So normally it can be done, but you will ( or should) have an attorney to be sure all things are done correctly.