I live in Alabama and my child is 6. Well his dad is in the U.S Navy and I haven't talk to him in over 2 or 3 years. I am married now and I want to know if my husband can adopt my child. I have a court date scheduled for April 7th, but I have a feeling that he is not going to show up. If he do not show, how can I get my husband to adopt without his consent.

The biological father has to sign over rights/give up rights for someone else to adopt. If the biological is still alive, he must give consent for another person to adopt.

If the bio father doesn't show up and refuses to relinquish rights, there may be little you can do. You should have an attorney preparing the adoption papers, he can advise you how to get his rights terminated if he refuses.

Scott Gem said that there my be little I can do about letting my husband adopt my son, what does little me. I heard that I can put an ad in the paper and if he does not respond in 90 days, I can go ahead with the adoption. If this is true, I want to do this because he is not stationed here and don't know where he is and probably want here from him again.

You MUST get him to sign off on his parental rights, or at least make a valid attempt to contact him. Period.

You will probably need a lawyer to draw up the adoption papers anyway--get that lawyer to walk you through what needs to be done for contacting the bio dad, and for taking care of all the details to make SURE the adoption is valid.

Lying to make an adoption go through is NOT a good way to do things. Adoption is a LEGAL process, and you must follow the laws to make it valid.

First, please don't start a new thread for a follow-up question. Just post a reply to this thread. I've merged the two threads for you.

If he is not willing to relinquish his rights, there is little you can do to force him. You know he is in the Navy, so just posting a notice in a local paper is not enough. You have to send him a notice in care of the Navy so they can forward it. You have to make a good faith effort to contact him. If you don't the adoption can be voided.

As both Synnen and I said, you need to get an attorney to prepare the adoption papers. The attorney will advise you how to go about terminating his rights LEGALLY so the adoption can't be overturned.