[WhiteTiger1981]

My husband is in the process of adopting my son. Due to several deployments and other military obligations it has been a long time coming.

We have court tomorrow and I don't really know what to expect. In this case there was an unknown biological father. We did two DNA tests that were negative when he was born. We ran the ad in the paper as directed. We are filing this all on our own so we are kind of at a loss as to what to expect tomorrow.

What will they ask of us? My son turns 6 next week. Will they want to ask him anything?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[tweetybirdus]

We didn't do a stepparent adoption, but basically the judge did a run down of everything we've done for our child since she came into our care. She also said that we've done the necessary paperwork and said that she saw no reason not to sign the adoption decree. She signed it, took a pic with us, gave us a couple true copies of the decree, and send us on our merry way.

In a stepparent adoption, the judge may ask why he wants to adopt the child? His response could be something like, I love this child and wish to parent him for the rest of his life. The judge may ask your son a few easy questions, like do you want to be adopted, or do you love your dad. But at his age, they may not.

Sorry this is a little late.

[Fran27]

Sorry I'm no help but let us know how it went!

[WhiteTiger1981]

Thanks everyone. I was expecting it to take a bit longer, but it was real cut and dry.

They took us back to the judges chambers since it is an adoption and he had us state our names (including our son) and raise our right hands. Then we had to swear that everything in the paperwork was true and that was it. He then signed the paperwork and told us to come back that afternoon for our certified copies of the adoption and name change. It literally took maybe 3 minutes if that.

The clerk had told us it would take 30 days after the judge signed it for it to come into effect, but the judge told us no it was immediate when he signed the paperwork which was a welcome surprise. We have to go by social security next week and get that changed and they send off the birth certificate change so we have to wait a couple of weeks to order a new one.

We took the paper to the school today so they can change his school records. He is so excited to use the same last name as the rest of us now.

[Fran27]

That's great, congrats!

[GoddessDanu]

Congrats!