[baw1953]

My son has custody of his daughter and the mother has not been in her life for 6 years. They live in the house with us he is currently incarcerated and the mother is all of a sudden wanting to make contact. My husband and I were thinking of adopting her but we do not want to hurt either our son or granddaughter in the process. Is there any other options to go about this without taking her from him but not allowing the mother to come in and take her?

[JudyKayTee]

You say your son lives with you, and then you say he is incarcerated. How long has he been incarcerated?

The mother's rights are superior to yours unless your son and the mother have gone to Court in the past and there is some type of order in place. Yes, she can contact the child and/or come and get her UNLESS you go to Court and fight her, state she is unfit and PROVE it. It does not appear that you have any legal rights to this child. The mother does.

The exception is if your son has LEGAL custody - does he, by Court order?

I suspect the Court is going to take a close look at both parents. Why is your son in jail?

In general you cannot adopt without the written consent of both parents. If the parents (one or both) are unfit, they can lose custody (although it's a long process), the child can be placed in foster care and/or placed for adoption eventually and you could petition to adopt. The mother's parents, of course, have the same claim to the child that you have.

[Fr_Chuck]

Grandparents can not just adopt the child without both parents permission unless the courts have taken way her rights. So at this point, it sounds like mother may have more rights to child,