My wife and I have been married since Sep 2000 and were living togeather in March of the same year. She has 2 children by two different fathers. The oldest one's father is in the picture and active in her life. The youngest 8 yrs old now, has never seen her birth father and has lived with me since she was 1.5 years old. She has been brought up with me as her father for the past 6 and a half years. She knows about her birth father but the last time my wife heard from him in 2001 he didn't want anything to do with the child if he couldn't have my wife.

I want to adopt her but we haven't been able to find him or locate a good number for the past 3 years (since we've started looking). He has been married several times before and has several children scattered across the country (he was in the Army). We have never sought or received child support or any other support by him.

The father on the child's birth certificate is listed as "unknown" or is just blank (I don't recall right off)

If the father is listed as "unknown" and you have made a good faith effort to locate him but have come up blank, then adopting her should be no problem, just a matter of petitioning the Family Court. Try to document as much as possible your attempts to contact him. The court may want to give him a specified time in which to respond, maybe 90 or 180 days. However, if after 3 years of trying to contact him have come up empty then it's not likely that 90 or 180 more days will yield any results. You'll just have to wait out the time the judge specifies, then I'm sure (s)he'll sign an adoption decree and you'll be able to have the birth certificate amended to indicate you as the legal father.

Your attorney in your area will know the local courts requirement, Of course the father is not unknown, so you will have to admit who he is, and the court will need to publish a official legal notice prior to its actions.

You present proof of your search, including attempts to contact his parents and the such.

The court will then rule on the issue.

Your state and the local court will have specific rules it expects to be followed in these cases.

I think in some places you may just be able to go to whoever records the birth certificates and the mother can have your name added to the because with your consent.

Kasal kami ng asawa ko last year ng August ngayon may anak siyang 13 yers old patay na ang father ng bata hindi rin sila kasal at ang apilyedo ng bata ay sa nanay niya blank ang name ng father sa nso birth certificate ng bata what is my first step to process his adoption papers kasi po plano ko po silang kunin pagbalik ko abroad. Please help me thanks...

We've been married for almost one year and my wife have 1 kid 13 years old now I want to adopt his kid because the last name of his kid is my wife last name and in his nso birth certificate is blank of the name of the father column. What will I do to start process of his adoption because I have plan to bring them abroad with me...

If the husband [ i.e, the girl's father ] hasn't seen the girl since she was that young, and he claims he wants nothing to do with her if he can't have your wife, then as far as I am concerned, you have every right in the world to adopt this sweet little girl, it seems to me that her faather is the one losing out, since he has told your wife that if he can't have her, he wants nothing to do with this sweet girl, you raised her since she was one and a half years old, she knows you as daddy, make it legal, adopt this precious girl, she will be a lot happier