I am a 23 year old mother of two girls and my oldest child's father has not been in her life for about three years now. He is all of the sudden trying to come back into her life and he is a convicted felon and known drug addict. My daughter was born in the state of Texas but now we reside in the state of Alabama. My main question is since he has not been in her life for so long can I get him for abandonment and get his rights taken away? My husband now wants to adopt her and she knows him as daddy.


Latisa

Unfortunately, the olderst child father has to sign away his rights before your husband can adopt.

I know that this must be hard on you and your husband.

No, this is not abandoment and normally just not seeing the child or not paying child support is accepted as a reason to end rights. Now the prison thing is, often that is an allowed reason in some states to take away their rights ( esp long term prison) Also if you can prove he is a threat to the child, you can at least get supervised visits. And of course taking him to court for back child support, perhaps getting him in jail a few weeks for back support, will often help make themdecide to sign rights away

It is up to the child's father to decide if he will allow the adoption. No, you can't "get him" for abandonment. How long was he in prison? You could use that to get supervised visits but the judge won't just strip him of his rights. Have you gone to court for support yet?

Thank you all for your advice. Her father has been in Prison once, state jail twice and county jail 32 times that is provided on the county web site. He has one abuse charge, lots of fraud and drug charges to. The only thing about getting him to accept the adoption thing is finding him. He has an unstable lifestyle and has no home. I am just confused and worried about my little girl.