[dandsphillips08]

Can I adopt my wife's daughter? Me and my wife have been together for four years, and married for a year. Her little girl is seven years old and already calls me daddy. The biological father has not seen her in almost a year and constintantly is behind on child support, and just recently he went to jail for being so far behind. He has no interest in her and in the four years that me and my wife have been together he has only seen the little girl maybe 15 times. I am in the military and we just went to court before christmas to get sole custody of the daughter so they can travel with me when I get my orders. I was wondering if there is anything that we can do so that I can adopt her and not have to deal with him anymore. We are from South Carolina. Thank you for your help

[GlassFlower]

You need to get bio-dad to sign over his parrental rights. He'd never have to pay child support again, but then you can adopt. You can petition the courts to have his parrental rights taken away, but he has seen her 15 times in 4 years and in many cases a judge may rule that that's enough involvement for the courts to deny the petition. Your best bet is to talk to him and get him to just sign over his rights. He may be willing to just to get off the hook for child support. Good luck.

[Fr_Chuck]

If the bio father will just sign off to allow you to adopt it is not problem at all.

If he will not, you may check, in some states if he is sentenced to prison for a longer time his rights may be taken away