[Maranda_Seitter]

I have a 4 year old, 2 year old, and 5 month old, and my boyfriend wants to adopt all of them, they all have different dads and the two youngest have never seen their dad, and the oldest ones dad left when she was 2 or three months. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost 3 years.. although we are not married he wants to take resposablity for all the kids.. so they can all have the same last name, and he is the only one they know as there dad. I have been doing some reading in the laws.. and all the parental rights have been taken from all of their dads because they are past the 4month time limit. How do I go about getting papers for him to adopt them?

[ylaira]

Depending from where you are, generally all adoption of the mother's partner requires that you have to be married, you need the bio-father's consent and need a lawyer.

[Fr_Chuck]

Nope, you are not reading the laws correctly, they may not have use of their rights without going back to court, but they have not "lost" their rights, perhaps just the use without court. But you will have to get them to sign their rights over for him to adopt, and if you don't really know where they are, do the searches required by the court to try and find them. Also in most states you will have to be married for one year.

[div2wice]

I am not sure if you misread the laws also... I have never heard of a time limit for parental rights. Be sure about this... I would contact the courthouse and see if you can get more info. But from what I know, every state requires you to get the father to relinquish his parental rights before they can be adopted by someone else. I do also believe you both need to be married for the children to be adopted.
Contact these people, I used them and they can answer these questions for you based on your state laws, they can also prepare the paperwork for you guys: Child Adoption | Step Parent Adoption | Domestic Adoption

Good Luck!

[JudyKayTee]

I am not sure if you misread the laws also... I have never heard of a time limit for parental rights. Be sure about this.... I would contact the courthouse and see if you can get more info. But from what I know, every state requires you to get the father to relinquish his parental rights before they can be adopted by someone else. I do also believe you both need to be married for the children to be adopted.
Contact these people, I used them and they can answer these questions for you based on your state laws, they can also prepare the paperwork for you guys: Child Adoption | Step Parent Adoption | Domestic Adoption

Good Luck!

Please stop publicizing this same site - this is advertising which is not allowed on these threads.

[div2wice]

I do apologize, I was not aware I could not share links with others. I used this service and they were extremely helpful.

I'm confused though.. . I've seen MANY others reply to questions with links in their signatures, can I get clarification on why they're allowed and I am not, so I can follow the rules?

[JudyKayTee]

I do apologize, I was not aware I could not share links with others. I used this service and they were extremely helpful.

I'm confused though.. .I've seen MANY others reply to questions with links in their signatures, can I get clarification on why they're allowed and I am not, so I can follow the rules?

If it's your link, I believe you can add it to your signature. Lots of people, as you said, have their personal links in their signature.

The best way I can describe this is that "we" all post here free; Attorneys pay for advertising; posting the names of other Attorneys or law firms or legal service firms takes away from the potential income of the Attorneys sponsoring this site.

Maybe a moderator will come along and explain better.

But I do hope you'll keep coming back and posting because it sounds like you've been there/done that and can be immensely helpful to other people.

And welcome.

[ylaira]

As long as the web linked is not an Advertising, it should be okay. Ex. Wikipedia,wedmd, readers digest.

[JudyKayTee]

As long as the the web linked is not an Advertising, it should be okay. Ex. wikipedia,wedmd, readers digest.

If you look at the site, it's a legal help site - it's not an informational site.

(Is informational even a word - :)