[dem124]

I have a one year old daughter and her father has not been in her life since I kicked him out of my house after she was born because I was not going to support him. My dilemma is the lawyer I talked to said that they won't take his rights away and I am not sure why. I figure this is straight abandonment since he doesn't send any support, doesn't call, contact or see her at all. I want my husband to adopt her but I can't until I get his rights terminated. Any ideas on how I can terminate his rights, I don't even know where he lives... Suggestions?:confused: :confused: I really want to get this done with and go on with our lives.

[Fr_Chuck]

The reason they can not take his rights away, merely not paying child support or not visiting the child is not grounds for taking away someone rights.

In fact do you even have a court order of child support? So you file for custody if you have not already, and get a child support order in place

[MsMewiththat]

I'm going to ask the hottest question: "WHAT STATE ARE YOU IN". My advice to you would be to contact your county or state agency for family services. They will advise you best for your jurisdiction. The state that I live in allows after a certain period (one year probably not long enough) for you to give proper notice... serving the person by legal notice in the last known county that they lived in. This could very well be different in your area and my advice would be to contact your local agency. The sooner the better so you can establish your intentions over the required time frame.

[ScottGem]

Abandonment can be a grounds for getting a TPR, depending on your state, but its rare that one is granted, especially involuntarily.

There are ways, however, to get the rights terminated. Since you need an attorney to prepare the adoption peitition, have one take care of the TPR as well.