Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

cant find the father and need info on adoption

I am a mother of a 2 year old child, whose father hasn't seen her in over 1 year. I can't find him to enforce child support, he has just kinda vanished. He has supervised visitation til 2009 set up through an order of protection. But he's not showing up for it. I recently got married and my husband (her step-father) she has known for the last year and he's been the one taking care of her more or less. Well, he's wanting to adopt her. So I was wondering how do we get that process started when I can't find her father. And her biological father signed a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity to be on the birth certificate since we were never married.


Asked on 8/01/08, 1:35 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Steele Steele Law Firm

Re: cant find the father and need info on adoption

I am in the process of handling several adoptions almost identical to your situation in Cook, Will, and Dupage counties. Adoption in Illinois is somewhat tricky because of concerns of child welfare (given some recent cases of abuse, and DCFS problems). Having your new husband adopt your child given the circumstances you outline is certainly doable. Given the complexity of adoptions and the fact that the biological father can come back and overturn the adoption if it is not done correctly, people use family lawyers experienced in adoption to handle their cases. Feel free to contact me if you want to go over the details of your case.

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Answered on 8/01/08, 9:27 am


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