Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
hello:
After caring for a child for over 8 years, we have now found out through dna that my son is not the biological father.. We have of course, thought that we were the grand parents.. I know that DNA doesn't lie but we still love this little boy as if he were our own.. What rights if any do we have. We still want to see him, keep him and be a part of his life.. Can this child be kept from us .. Thank you so much
1 Answer from Attorneys
The answer to that is going to depend on the specific circumstances of all this. If the biological father is now in the picture and wants to assert his parental rights, then basically your son is going to be restricted to getting some kind of periodic visitation, which he'd have to petition the court for. If the biological father is not in the picture, then it's possible that either an informal agreement could be reached where everything could just float along as it always has, or if he's really not interested at all (and wants to avoid child support), your son would probably be allowed to adopt him if everyone was happy with that.
Now, here's the bad part: maybe I'm reading this wrong, and I'm not sure from what you've said here what the situation is with your son, but you kind of make it sound like possibly your son's not in the picture either, and this child has actually been raised ONLY by his grandparents. If that's the cae, then unfortunately, I don't think that you have any legal rights at all. Your son may, but you don't (and actually, he would only if he's been in the boy's life and has had a regular, father-son relationshi with him). If that's not the case, the best option I think you'd have is to see if the biological parents will let you adopt him. Sometimes the prospect of having to pay chikd support otherwise can be a big incentive on that. Good luck.