[castlefam05]

My husband has been in my son's life since he was 3 months old (he is going to be 5 in November- born in 2007). My son's biological father was non-existent in his life until Jan 2011. He was in a relationship and I thought he had pulled his life together although he had not contacted me since our son was 3 months old. His mother (which lives out of state) asked if we could eat dinner with all of them. At that point his biological father asked if he could see him. After really thinking about the situation I agreed to let him be in my son's life. His then girlfriend was pregnant and I didn't want my son to not know his sister. I had a long talk with the biological father about making a choice- either being in our son's life consistently or not at all. I didn't want him to come and go as a father and hurt my child. He agreed however he managed to only do this for about 5 months. We agreed that he could take him every other weekend from Friday night to Sunday night. We also agreed to a child support amount of $300.00 a month (to cover daycare cost). About 3 months in to this he started cancelling his weekends and making excuses about me having to pick up my son early. This was also the time he stopped paying child support. I asked if he would rather go through the duval child support system if he thought the amount was unfair. He agreed and we went down to the office together and signed the paperwork. Two months later (at month 5 of him being in my son's life) we got the court ordered child support amount (which was $714 a month). At this point he simply stopped answering my calls and stopped picking up my son. I still have a good relationship with his now ex-girlfriend however neither of us know where he is. He has not been in either of the children's lives since August of 2011. Sorry for the long story about I needed to explain that before I asked my question. My husband wants to adopt my son in a step-parent adoption however I'm unsure of the path we need to take since we do not know the whereabouts of his biological father. He no longer lives at the last apartment that I knew about and he is no longer at the last known place of employment. Can anyone give me advice on what steps we need to take for my husband to be able to adopt? Thank you for any advice.

[cdad]

Get a lawyer and take their advice to proceed with an adoption. If the fathers whereabouts are truly unknown then they can do it by publication after the courts have been satisfied that a diligent search took place.

[Fr_Chuck]

Do you know where his parents live, or a brother that may know where he is at.

The courts will have requirements for searching for him that will have to be done. These requirements differ by court. An attorney will be needed, so hire one, he will know the requirements, if he can not be found, then notification would be done by publication.

The fact you can not find him, makes it much more costlier since search and publication will have to be done.