Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana
I have been married to my husband for a little over a year and we have been together for a little over two years. I have a 5 year old daughter from a previous relationship. Her biological father is currently sitting in jail (he has already been there for 5 months and he still has a little under 300 days to go) for assaulting me in front of our little girl 2 years ago as well as assaulting another girl in front of her small child. In the past 2 years, he has chosen to see our child 19 hours since he was court ordered to supervised visitation only after the assault and a failed psychiatric exam occurred. Every now and then he will make a child support payment (but in reality, it's his parents doing it so he can "look good on paper") and as of right now, he is only ordered to pay me $36/week since he has been unemployed the majority of her life. He probably owes me about $3,000 now. While he has been in jail he has sent her 3 cards. He has not spoken to her on the phone in 2 years.
My husband is in the Army Reserves and we just found out we are going Active Duty. We don't have the exact date or location yet but we will be moving to a different state in about 4 months (and yes, I will be petitioning the court about our move once we have the final contract).
My husband desperately wants to adopt my daughter. He may not be blood but he is, without a doubt, her dad. The problem is... there is NO WAY her biological father will agree to it. I've spent countless hours researching this and I can't find ANYTHING in regards to requirements for an adoption in our situation to occur. What can we do? I have spoken with an attorney but all he would tell me at the time is that it's going to be expensive and messy. I don't care about that; bring it on! But isn't there some kind of code or definition about this? We can't be the only family in this predicament! Thank you so much in advance for any help/support!
1 Answer from Attorneys
There is no exact definition. He has an obligation to provide support and to communicate with his child, and if he doesn't, his rights to object to an adoption may be taken away from the court. Efforts at support and communication that are only "token" are insufficient, but there is no definition of "token" other than that in the dictionary, meaning that it is an uncertain proposition.
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