Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

It's a two step process. Termination then a step-parent adoption. Very complex. You will need an attorney to help you. Look on this website and on www.avvo.com for help.

Good luck!

Adoption is a very complex and expensive procedure, but well worth it.

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You will need a qualified adoption attorney to handle this process.

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As a summary of what needs to be done:

First, the attorney would need to draft and file a Petition to Terminate the biological father's rights and then, serve him by publication or find him and personally serve him with the Petition.

Then, the attorney would need to draft an Affidavit to Terminate the biological father's Parental Rights and see if he will sign it. If he agrees to sign it, there will be a court process, which will eventually end up with a voluntary termination of his rights, and to help him decide as to whether or not he should sign the Affidavit, negotiations can take place with him, or his counsel, providing evidence to him as to what will be presented to the court, if a hearing is required, including how he has been absent, how his absence has effected the child(ren) and how he has not paid child support for the past 10 years, etc.

Next once the executed Affidavit to Terminate Rights is filed with the court, a hearing will be set to enter the Order of Termination and if the court agrees, the biological father's rights will be terminated.

If the biological father does not agree to the termination, and will not sign the Affidavit, a hearing will need to take place and at that hearing, the biological father will have the chance to state why his rights should not be terminated.

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Next, if the biological father's rights are terminated by order of the court, the attorney will draft and file the Petition for Adoption and then, you and the adopting parent will need to go through all the background checks and evaluations required by the court in order for the court to consider your petition. Once all of the requisites are met and the court approves the person seeking adoption to adopt the child, a hearing will be set to enter the Order of Adoption.

This hearing is quite an awesome time and a special day! and most of our clients will have a small celebration in the courtroom, with the Judge. There is a sealing process after this.

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Lastly, the attorney will need to file all of the necessary papers with the dept. of vital statistics, and after this process is completed, you will be able to obtain a new birth certificate and a US passport for the child.

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Please note: This summary is NOT an all inclusive list as much more work needs to be done in order to accomplish these results.

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Goldstein & Scopellite, PC has qualified adoption attorneys, termination lawyers and child custody attorneys available to represent you at either one of their law offices located in Dallas, Texas and Tucson, Arizona - Please visit their websites at www.LawyersDallas.com and www.Lawyers-Tucson.com for more information or to contact them. Thank you.