I live in Florida and have recently married, I have a 8 yr old from a previous relationship,
The father lives in Illinois, My husband wants to adopt my child, but her father will not consent, he has never paid child support, he has not seen her for over 3yrs.he has only spoken to her maybe 4 times in that time, and when he does he has upset her, and made her cry, never sends birthday or christmas cards, nothing, what can we (myself & husband) do about this, my child is extremely smart and she wants this also, she loves her stepfather,whom she calls daddy of her own free will, and he supports her completely, financially and emotionally.

Your child's biological father needs to be willing to surrender his rights in order for your husband to adopt your daughter. A court will not strip him of his rights unless he's a danger to the child.

So how many times in 3 years have you taken him back to court, what is child support enforcement doing,

If he knows he is going to have to pay child support he may be a lot more willing to sign over rights

Ok, I stated my question wrong, what we actually want to do is hyphenate the name, because I have children with my husband and she(my daughter) wants her name to be the same, and this is also for insurance reasons.

You're going to need the birthfather's permission for either an adoption or a name change.

Start getting the child support order enforced. Go back to court for more support. But unless he's willing to sign over his rights (getting out of child support will do that for some men) or you can get them terminated for something like abuse, then an adoption will not move forward.

I highly suggest that you consult a family law attorney in your area. You will probably need an attorney for this anyway, and a local attorney will be able to tell you if you even have a chance.

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Originally Posted by lesmarlaur

Ok, I stated my question wrong, what we actually want to do is hyphenate the name, because I have children with my husband and she(my daughter) wants her name to be the same, and this is also for insurance reasons.

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Just a side question - why is the name change necessary for insurance purposes - unless soemone who is not the natural parent is attempting to place the child on an insurance policy as a natural child -

What am I missing?