I'm not from GA. But I'm hoping I can help out a little. You don't have to have a lawyer do this for you, you can do it all on your own. Although it is much easier with a lawyer it is also more $$.
Also it isn't the FBI that does the background checks in most states if is Social Services or the Probation Department they will come out to your house talk to you and your husband also the kids (in some states talking to the kids is not neccessary depending on their age). They then do a background check (criminal record check and credit of your husband and the Biological father) they will also go and talk to the Biological father if they can find him, if not they then put that in their report. Once the report is done they send it to the judge, you then get a court date to appear and you have to post that in the local news paper of the last known place the father lived (normally for 30 days). The first court date is normally to terminate parental rights. Then in some states once that is done you get another court date to come back for the adoption. However in CA they normally do it all in one day.
There are many web site that have forms for you for free, there are also books about the process
http://www.stepparentadoption.com/
http://family-law.freeadvice.com/ado...t_adoption.htm
http://www.legaldocs.net/47895214569.html
http://www.georgiacourts.org/aoc/selfhelp/index.html
http://www.georgiacourts.org/
The last two should help you very much!
Hope that helps some,
Kim M