I have two daughters that line in Pennsylvania, I live 6 hours away in New York and used to get court ordered visits with them until 3 years ago when my ex-wife remarried, my ex asked me repeatedly to give up my parental rights and let her husband adopt the two children convincing me that the children ages 6 and 11 wanted nothing to do with me and wanted her new husband to be their father, she went as far as forcing my oldest daughter to call me and say she didn't ever want to see me again. So after being denied my court ordered visits over and over again and not seeing my kids in almost a year I decided it may be the right thing to do, then a year later after finally succeeding to get in touch with me my 13 year old daughter tells me everything, how they had to hide in the back bedroom and not make a sound when I tried to get my court ordered visits, how they weren't allowed to even speak of me or refer to me at all, and how their mom tried to force them to hate me! My oldest daughter hates her mom and wants me in her life, she wants me to fight for custody, I signed over my parental rights but under false pretense, and my daughter wants to testify to that against her mother in court, would this give me any grounds to have my parental rights reinstated and file for custody? My daughter is 14 years old now and we have been in touch almost a year now via a cellphone that I mailed to a friend of hers and believe 100% that she wants to come live with me, once about 6 months ago her mom found out about our communication breakthru and broke her cellphone into pieces ordering her that she never try it again, and for the last 6 months she has been confined to her room after school only to come out for dinner and homework, she has not contact with the outside world except for school, I have since mailed another cellphone to her friend and my daughter leaves it at school, she call me from time to time and text messages me every day, her home life is not getting any better and she wants out, what are my rights and what can I do?

You did not have to sign over your rights, you had the right to take her back to court for contempt for not allowing your visits, You can hire an attorney and see but I see no recourse, since you did not take the opportunity to enforce and use your rights when you had them.

This is borderline. Generally when a court approves an adoption it effectively ends the parental relationship.

But, if your daughter is a credible witness and the court believes you acted under duress, then there is a chance. But you will NEED a good lawyer. Contact the local bar association where your children live and see if you can get recommendations. Talk to a few attorneys, both in PA and locally to get a educated appraisal of your chances.

If I understand you, your daughter got in touch with YOU after the adoption, not the other way around. That's an important point.

Wow! Don't sit on this! Get it done! Where there's a will there's a way! The worst case scenario: your children know that you did all you could to fight to include them in your life. I say you're going to be surprised and how favorable this situation can become. I would find a great attorney, request a full blown Child Custody Evaluation, request court-appointed legal counsel for your children. And, with the number of psychologists working on this case, they will uncover truth as they speak to the children. PARENTAL ALIENATION and MANIPULATION of children can place you in a very favorable position. I say, if you play this smartly, you could end up with custody! GO FOR IT! Your children deserve it!

Thanks for all your responses, in response to fr_chuck, I was under the impression that it was my daughters choice not to see me, so with that in mind I didn't want to cause them any more pain, my ex wife made me believe they hated me. I thought they were happy! And to add to scottgem's reply, yes my daughter contacted me via a friends phone, I had used the same cellphone number for years so she remembered it! Thanks again for everything! Going to get a lawyer!

Good luck and keep is posted.

Oh my goodness, how heartbreaking. And a clear cut case of parental alienation. Hire the best atty possible and fight... your children are worth it and they need you!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by grhodes2413

... they had to hide in the back bedroom and not make a sound when I tried to get my court ordered visits, how they weren't allowed to even speak of me or refer to me at all,
...
for the last 6 months she has been confined to her room after school only to come out for dinner and homework, she has not contact with the outside world except for school, ...

---

In addition to what others have said in this thread, it almost sounds like one of those "chained in the closet" stories you read about every once in a while. Borderline child abuse, in other words. You might want to also contact the local child protective services agency.