My son was born out or wedlock in 2001. Long story short.. It has been since 2006 (5 years) since his father has seen him, and 2008 was the last phone call we received (3 years) and he quit paying his court ordered child support in September 2010. My husband has been the only dad my son has know since he was 18 months! I have a lawyer but he doesn't seem to give me the answers I need. We have sent the bio dad papers to reliquish his parental rights so that my husband can adopt him, but he refuses to sign them! Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

It will be expnsive but your lawyer can carry forward with the adoption. It will follow with the child's best interest. It can happen even if he refuses to sign. Also have you made any offers to sweeten things like relinquishing the arrears on his child support should he sign the documents as needed?

You can try to take his rights, If he does not show up to fight, you may win, if he shows up to fight it, most likely you will lose, so you can spend another 5000 to 10000 on attorney to try.

You also can really get child enforcement after him, take him back to court for contempt for non payment of support. And try to make it tough on him so he may be OK with signing.

If he is not paying and you are not doing anything, why should he sign, nothing in it for him.

He changed his phone number and has moved from his last know address! I have NO way to contact him?

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Originally Posted by joshlisacherry

He changed his phone number and has moved from his last know address! I have NO way to contact him?

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You can serve him by publishing the info in compliance with a Court Order OR you could hire private investigator to locate him.

The Court WILL require that you make every effort to attempt him to serve him with the papers he needs to sign concerning the adoption - if you go that far.

I agree - have you gone back to Court to enforce the support order?

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Originally Posted by joshlisacherry

We have sent the bio dad papers to reliquish his parental rights so that my husband can adopt him, but he refuses to sign them!

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Originally Posted by joshlisacherry

He changed his phone number and has moved from his last know address! I have NO way to contact him?

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Did he move and change his number after receiving the papers? Do you have any proof that he received the papers?

If so, you go to court, show the court that he was made aware of the adoption and rather than respond he moved and changed his number. Given the circumstances its likely (IMHO) the court will approve the adoption.

He received the papers and refused to sign them... he just recently divorced his wife.. and she told me that she's the one who had been making his CS payments
9/2009 he stated to his lawyer that he wants to be able to come to visit and he would like eventually to have the child visit him and is was willing to work into some type of visitation with the first several visits being excersised locally.
Part of the 2007 temporary orders was that he was requied to come to Texas and establish a relationship with him... But it is now 2012 and we still haven't seen or heard for him. Ive had the same phone # for 8 1/2 years.. and lived at the same house for 9. He know where to find us and how to contact us.

I just got off phone with my attorney and he is going to resend paper work for him to relinquish his parental rights so that my husband of almost 9 years can adopt him.. and I also just filled the paper work through the Attorney General. He is either going to sign or pay!

After a bio dad religuishes his parental rights... what are the steps for a step-parent to adopt the child? I already have an attorney..

Generally the threat of going after the parent for arrears usually induces them to sign.

You need proof he received the papers. As long as you can prove to the court that he knows about the adoption and has chosen to not do anything, they will probably go ahead.

First, the adoption process is a legal issue. The Adoption forum is for dealing with fact of adoption, not the legalities. So I moved your second post here. I also merged it with your original post. Since it bears on the same issue you should keep the threads together.

This is a question you should be asking your attorney. But the relinquishment of rights is not a separate process nor is it a step in the process. Your attorney will need to submit a petition to adopt to the Family Court. Part of the petition will be the request to terminate rights. If the bio father will sign a relinquishment, it goes in the package.

The court will then review the petition, it may order home visits to check on the family situation, but that is rare in a step parent adoption.

But the first step is hiring an attorney, the next step is for the attorney to prepare and submit the petition. I would suggest giving the bio father 2-4 weeks to respond to the second mailing and then have your attorney file the petition.

I don't understand why the retained Attorney isn't answering these questions.