[Sunshine Pearl]

Hello,
My step son is 8 yrs old and hasn't seen or spoken to his biological mother since he was 6 months old. Recently she has contacted us and asked to sign over her rights and just wants us to send her the forms then I could adopt him. Where do I start? We would rather not get a lawyer since she is agreeing to sign over her rights, what do I do?
We are in Nevada
Thank you for your time
:)

[ScottGem]

You have to file a petition for adoption with your local Family Court. What is involved will vary from court to court (which is why we always recommend having an attorney prepare it). But if you want to try and do it yourself, go down to the court and ask them what's involved. What forms need to be filled out, what info needs to be provided, etc. So courts require the bio parents to actually show up in court to affirm that they are relinquishing their rights. So you need to understand the requirements of the court that has jurisdiction.

[Sunshine Pearl]

Thank you Scott but to be clear... does this mean that she does not have to relinquish her rights for us to file the adoption paperwork? So I have now contacted the family court and they told me to download the forms from their website for the adoption. Do I just send her a copy and she types something up to relinquish her rights? Because I can't find a form for that

[Synnen]

She needs to relinquish rights through the courts.

HOW she does that varies from place to place.

Really--you should contact an attorney about this to make SURE there is nothing that will come back to haunt you later.

[Fr_Chuck]

There has to be formal release of rights for the adoption. Filed with the courts