The father of the kids is not currently in the picture. He comes and goes every few years. My husband wants to adopt my kids. If I can even find the father, I doubt he would sign over his kids or show up to court and he can't afford a lawyer. Any way to get paternity rights transferred to my husband? Background info:The father is a known felon, turned to drugs and alcohol and broke into our house. I can't file for a restraining order. Ideas?

You hire an attorney, and file for adoption, paper work will be done to have bio father sign over rights. If he can not be found, there will be other forms of service that will need to be followed.
If he is found he will be served. If he will not sign you can still try to force it in court, if he does not show up, you may ( maybe) win by default if they don't show up.

How hard have you been going after him with child support enforcement, often making it hard on them, will get them to change their minds and sign

I would contact a lawyer. They can tell you what your local laws are and consults are usually free. With his history you should have no problem.
A man I work with adopted his wife's son. They had to put an announcement in a local, were the mother lives and didn't say anything about popular, newspaper for so long. I think it was a for weeks. When no contact was made the biological father's rights were stripped and the adoption went through.
Good luck! Sounds like you have a keeper this time if he wants to adopt.

As noted, this should not be a problem as long as you follow the legal requirements. To make sure this is done properly and within the law, I strongly suggest hiring an attorney to prepare the adoption petition for you.

If the bio father is served and doesn't show, the court will likely grant the adoption by default.

Thank you! Very helpful. During the first year he left, he did sign child support. He paid 1 month, was fired and never seen another cent. That was several years ago and about $10k in the hole. He works under the table and has no permanent address. Child support can't do anything without an address they said to locate him.