My son will turn two in August. His bio father was notified he was born and even destroyed the affadavit and DNA request forms in front of me. My husband has been there for me and my son since he was two weeks old. We now have a mutual daughter. We changed my sons name (he had my maiden), and would like to begin the adoption process. However; his bio father moved soon after his birth, I have nothing but a P.O address I found on the internet. My local child support agency needs a physical address before they can do anything. My sons bio grandparents refuse to help me locate their son and have yet to see their grandchild either. Our family is being relocated to Georgia because of my husbands job in the Army, What is my next step?

Get a lawyer. That's your next step.

Your husband cannot adopt without at least an attempt to notify the biological father---and that has to be done according to the laws in your area. If you do it wrong, the biological father can come back at any time to overturn the adoption.

You will probably have to actually locate him, as well, since he has not been legally established as the father. You'll need to establish paternity first.

A P.O. Box is no protection. You can get the info easy enough as to where it is regitered to. This is something you do on your own if its for adoption not through the child support office. Also a P.O. Box doesn't stop them either from finding out.

That's exactly it; I set up an apointment to get the avadavit notarized, he never showed. I called him, different phone number. The child support agency closed my case because all I have is a PO Box. And his parents have refused to help in anyway to locate him. I understand I need a lawyer, and I know he will always have rights after the paternity test, I just don't know how to prove to the agencies that could possibly help; I've done all the steps correctly and lawfully. This is ultimatly about the wellbeing of my son, my husband is the only father he's known and would be devastated if anything happened to him.

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

ive done all the steps correctly and lawfully.

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I'm not so sure about that.

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

We changed my sons name (he had my maiden)

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How did you change your son's name without a court order and the father's permission?

But that's only a side issue. The first thing I would do is go to the paternal grandparents and tell them that your husband wants to adopt. That your husband's adopting your son will end their son's support and paternal obligations to the child. So you don't understand why he would be reluctant to help with this. Tell them if he agrees to the adoption you will not pursue the back support he owes. But if he doesn't help you will get the adoption anyway and he will still owe the back support which you will pursue. If they refuse to help, tell them you will need to get tough and enforce the support order. This will mean subpoenaing them in court to compel them to reveal where he can be served.

You will need an attorney in any case to properly prepare the adoption petition. The attorney can advise you on ways where you can make a good faith effort to get the bio father to agree.

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

... The child support agency closed my case because all i have is a PO Box. ...

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Strange they did that. As Califdadof3 said, it is a simple matter to get a physical address associated with a PO box. You simply fill out the right form with the post office.

But that's water under the bridge.

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

... I know he will always have rights after the paternity test, ...

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Except that an adoption would generally terminate such rights.

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

... I just dont know how to prove to the agencies that could possibly help ...

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For an adopiton, you are on your own. Agencies don't usually help with that. As has been said, contact an attorney.

What steps have I not done correctly or lawfully?

Also, the court sent a letter to his last address and the name change was published in our local newspaper, I'm guessing that's why it was allowed. And, I have emails between the paternal grandparents and I stating that's all I want from him ( full custody and a paternity test ) and they still refuse. So I suppose I just need to get tough. I have no idea why they refuse to give up any obligation to my son, it seems they don't want anything to do with him. I'm in the process of finding the right lawyer for my case. Thank you for all the feedback!

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Originally Posted by wlpclp32

Also, the court sent a letter to his last address and the name change was published in our local newspaper, I'm guessing thats why it was allowed.

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As I said, I wasn't "sure". Now you have made me sure you DID do it right. Very often people come on here and they have done things out of ignorance that they thought was right. The fact that you posted your question gave indication that you might not know the legal way to do things. But since you say you did get a court order for the name change, then it would appear everything is legal.

You basically need to go through the same process for the adoption. Probably would have been easier to do the adoption instead of having to do things twice.

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