Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

That depends on whether you want to try to actually adopt your stepchild, or just want to be sure the "t's are crossed and i's are dotted". If you want to adopt, the other father's rights would need to be terminated, which is generally easier to do if you can find him and get his blessing. You'd also need to be able to show that he's abandoned the child of his own accord, that they have no real relationship, that you, on the other hand, do have a real father-child relationship and a good, safe, stable home environment, and that the child would just generally be better off with you than with him. It's not an easy process, but once it's done, it's done, and can result in the child having a much stronger sense of security about his or her future.

If you don't want to adopt, you could instead seek permanent managing conservatorship. The upside of that approach for you would be that it might be faster and easier, especially if you can find the other father and get him to agree to it. On the other hand, if he's abandoned his child for that long, I have the funny feeling that he probably hasn't been paying child support in a long time, if at all, and anything he agreed to would have to include that he was still ordered to pay support, which he probably isn't going to want to do. Also, that would be more like what you'd consider a "guardianship" role, since there are ongoing duties to report to the court annually, for the court to review things, and so on. So it's kind of a pain to deal with long-term in that sense. It could be done so that you were the only managing conservator (the one who gets to make decisions about the child like residence, school, etc.), or you could share those responsibilities with the other father (I doubt that would work well here, though). There's also always the slight possibility with PMC that the other parent will magically change from what they are now into the perfect parent down the road, at which point, they could take things back to court and the situation could change dramatically. With an adoption, again, once it's over, it's over.

It looks from the zip code you gave like you live in Dickinson. I practice out of Galveston, so if you're welcome to contact me if you decide you'd like to pursue one of those options. I know the situation must be hard for you right now given the stress of your wife's death and having this left unresolved--I hope everything's going relatively well for you and your child and that you're getting tge support that you need. Good luck.