[yjack]

Is it possible for me to adopt my step daughter? The situation is that her MOM is on the birth certificate but does not play a role in her life. My husband has full legal custody.
She pays no child support or has no communication with her. She is 4 years of age and I've been taking care of her since she was 1.
She lives the girl when my husband was on Iraq. We don't know were her mother is , she is a drug abuse. What can I do?

[stevetcg]

Is it possible for me to adopt my step daughter? The situation is that her MOM is on the birth certificate but does not play a role in her life. My husband has full legal custody.
She pays no child support or has no communication with her. She is 4 years of age and I've been taking care of her since she was 1.
She lives the girl when my husband was on Iraq. We dont know were her mother is , she is a drug abuse. What can i do?

Get a lawyer. You will need to go through procedures to attempt to locate the mother. Then the court will issue a TPR (termination of parental rights) and you will be allowed to adopt.

But is a tricky procedure. You will need a lawyer.

[ScottGem]

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

You need to hire an attorney to prepare the adoption petition. Part of that petition will be a termination of the mother's rights. If she can't be found or refuses to sign, the attornjey will advise you how to involuntarily terminate her rights.

[Synnen]

You get a lawyer, first off. You'll need one.

Then you try to get the mother to voluntarily sign away her parental rights.

If she won't, then you have to PROVE her to be an unfit parent. Good luck with that--it's harder to do than you'd think.

A lawyer will make this easier and will make sure that all the I's are dotted and t's crossed to make it impossible to turn over your adoption later.