I have four year old twin daughters who have not seen their biological father in almost 2 years. They no longer remember him and to be quit frank I am happy with that. He dropped them so fast and broke their little hearts. My husband is the only person they know as daddy. He has taking all and full responsibility for them and wants more than anything in this world to adopt him. I will never allow my ex back into their life (he has multiple convictions for drugs and domestic violence) I want to terminate his rights and he refuses. I have found out about "child abandoment laws" which from what I understand after a certain amount of time of not paying child support or visiting with the children it is considered abandoment.I don't know where to go from here!! I live in Ohio and he lives in Michigan. Which state do I go to? Where do I start if anyone can help me out or has been here before let me know please!! I would more than appreciate it.:confused:

Have your new hubby adopt.

XenoSapien

I don't think the bio father is going to put up a fight, and there are other ways around getting his sig, ScottGem.

XenoSapien

You start by getting an attorney. It is extremely difficult to terminate a bio parents rights without their consent. You will need an attorney anyway to draw up the adoption papers so hire one and he will tell you what you need to do to get the courts to approve the adoption.

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Originally Posted by XenoSapien

I don't think the bio father is going to put up a fight, and there are other ways around getting his sig, ScottGem.

XenoSapien

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Did you bother reading this part of the OP's note: "i want to terminate his rights and he refuses". So obviously he IS putting up a fight. She has already stated her husband wants to adopt them. The whole question was about how to terminate without the bio's assent.

Please read the questions carefully before responding.

As for your retaliatory negative comment, your advice is again incorrect. Posting an annoucement is a possible method, if the OP didn't know where the bio father was. But since he is refusing and she stated she knew he was in MI, then that won't work. WE pride ourselves on the quality of the advice we give. Also the Comment feature should be used to give a negative comment only to correct a factually incorrect response. Your response was factually incorrect because it didn't deal with all the facts presented by the OP. MY response was factually correct and your rating inappropriate.

Saying to have the hubby adopt is not incorrect, so your negative comment was completely unwarranted.

As for the newpaper announcement, she can have it printed anywhere in the state, and how can it be proven that she knows exactly where he is? I'm out to save people money and time with my answers; not out to give expensive text-book answers.

XenoSapien

It WAS incorrect because it didn't deal with the facts as presented by the OP! You didn't read the question carefully and because of that your answer was incorrect for the question asked.

Again, while a newspaper posting is a possible method when the whereabouts of a person are not known, that's NOT the case here.

She will need an attorney to draw up the adoption papers. This is not expensive. I'm all for trying to save people time and money, but often investing a little time and money up front saves a lot more in the long run. If she tries to sneak the adoption past the bio father (who can easily proive she knew where he is), it will cost her a LOT more in the long run.

OK, enough of the debate here! Trish, what you would do is to file a motion for your husband to adopt your daughters, in the Superior Court for your county of residence, Family Division (preferably with the guidance of an attorney.) The biological father would have to give his consent, or, if his whereabouts are unknown, you'd have to show that you made a good faith attempt to contact him and give him the opportunity to consent (or not.) Now you say that he lives in MI, so evidently his whereabouts are not unknown, at least not totally. Do you know specifically where in MI he lives? Do you know for a fact that he's still in MI or is that a "last know address" as far as you're concerned? You also state that he refuses to relinquish his rights. You can still file the motion for your husband to adopt. Maybe he'll change his mind ; there's also the outside chance that a judge would grant the adoption anyway, over his objections. That's not highly likely but it is at least a theoretical possibility. The actual adoption procedure in and of itself is not complicated ; it's really just a matter of signing a piece of paper. If the bio father openly objects and wishes to contest the adoption, then it gets complicated.