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Originally Posted By Barb

My question is for a friend of mine. My friend and her soon to be husband just had a baby approximately six weeks ago. He would like to adopt her five year old daughter. My friend was never married to the father of the five year old and he is not on the birth certificate - no paternity has ever been established. The father has not seen the five year old in six months and never make much of an attempt if any to see her. He does not help financially on a regular basis. Frankly my friend would rather that he didn't see her daughter. Will she have to get consent from him for her soon to be husband to adopt? And how long will she have to have been married for him to be able to adopt? I am trying to do the ground work for her - I am a litigation paralegal and don't know much about the laws in this area. I have read the statutes but I wasn't quite convinced on how to proceed and wanted some advice from someone who deals with adoptions on a regular basis. Thank you in advance for your advice.

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Originally Posted By Dale R. Gwilliam

Hi Barb:

First of all, you should read the third post on this Arizona Stepparent Adoption Board, which is dated June 7, 2000, in which I set forth in detail how stepparent adoptions can be handled in Arizona FREE OF CHARGE by the office of the County Attorney, if the adoption is "uncontested."

Secondly, your question raises the following additional issues that were not discussed in the previous response that I have referred you to above:

1. Who Can Adopt:

As provided in the provisions of A.R.S. Section 8-103, which has been quoted below, basically any adult resident of Arizona can adopt. This would mean that that a soon-to-be stepparent, who is not yet married to the biological parent of the child to be adopted COULD legally adopt the child of the soon to be spouse. However, although this is legal, it may not be the best or most economical way to accomplish the adoption, since if the adopting parent is NOT a stepparent of the child to be adopted, meaning that the marriage has not taken place yet, then the not-yet-stepparent must go through the full certification process that is required under the provisions of A.R.S. Section 8-105. This full certification is NOT required of an adopting stepparent, which can save a lot of time and money. The part of this statute that refers to the exemption from pre certification being applied to stepparents is included below.

Arizona is a pre-adoption certification state, meaning that before an adoptive couple may adopt in Arizona, they must first become certified by the Juvenile Court ahead of as being acceptable to adopt a child. As described above, the bulk of this certification requirement is waived for stepparents.

Adopting Stepparents are also allowed to utilized a very abbreviated, and therefore less expensive form of he follow up Social Study, as provided in A.R.S. Section 8-112, a copy of which is quoted below.

NOTE that this statute does require the stepparent to be married to the biological parent of the child for at least ONE YEAR prior to the adoption in order for the exemption to apply.


2. What About The Parental Rights of the Absent Birthparent?


If the absent birthparent was never married to the custodial birthparent, then there are four ways that the parental rights of the absent birthparent can be terminated:

1. By the death of the absent parent.

2. By the absent parent signing either a valid Consent to Adoption of a valid Relinquishment of Parental Rights.

3. By the parental rights being terminated in a court case, which is usually based on “abandonment” of the child by the absent child, both financially and based on a lack of meaningful contact, or valid attempts to contact, for a CONTINUOUS period of at least 6-months, without that “abandonment” being caused or made more difficult by the actions of the custodial parent, such as intentionally hiding the child for the absent parent.

4. By using the provisions of Arizona Putative Father Registry Statute, which is found at A. R. S. Section 8-160, which has been quoted below in its parts that are applicable to this question. NOTE: The constitutionality of this particular part of the Putative Father Registry statute has not been challenged in court yet.

Once the parental rights of the absent birthparent have been terminated in one of these four ways, then the adoption of the child can take place.


Good luck with your adoption!




3. Copies of Statutes:

These are the portions of the Arizona Revised Statutes that have been referred to above, so that you can look at them for yourself:


8-103. Who may adopt

Any adult resident of this state, whether married, unmarried or legally separated is eligible to qualify to adopt children. A husband and wife may jointly adopt children.


8-105. Pre-adoption certification; investigation; central adoption registry

A. Before any prospective adoptive parent may petition to adopt a child the person shall be certified by the court as acceptable to adopt children. A certificate shall be issued only after an investigation conducted by an officer of the court, by an agency or by the division. A written application for certification shall be made directly to the court, to an agency or to the
division, in the form and content required by the court, agency or division.

* * *
M. This section does not apply if:

1. The prospective adoptive parent is the spouse of the natural or legal parent of the child to be adopted or is an uncle, aunt, adult sibling or grandparent of the child of the whole or half-blood or by marriage or adoption.

* * *
O. In cases not requiring pre-adoption certification pursuant to subsection M of this section, a criminal records check with the department of public safety and a records check with the division regarding any history of child welfare referrals shall be conducted and submitted as part of the social study required under section 8-112.


8-112. Social studies; requirements

A. The division, agency or qualified person directed by the court shall conduct and submit a social study to the court ten days before the hearing on the petition to adopt. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, the court may order an additional social study or waive the social study if it determines that this is in the child's best interests because of special circumstances.

* * *
D. The social study conducted pursuant to subsection A may consist only of the results of the state and federal criminal records check and the central registry records check conducted pursuant to subsection B if either of the following is true:

1. The prospective adoptive parent is the child's stepparent who has been legally married to the child's natural or legal parent for at least one year and the child has resided with the stepparent and parent for at least one year.



8-106. Consent to adoption; who shall consent; waiver; consent to the release of information; notification to potential fathers

* * *
G. Notice shall be served on each potential father as provided for the service of process in civil actions. The notice shall inform the potential father of all of the following:
1. The adoption is planned.
2. The potential father's right to consent or withhold consent to the adoption.
3. The potential father's responsibility to initiate paternity proceedings under title 25, chapter 6, article 1, within thirty days of completion of service.
4. The potential father's right to seek custody.
5. The potential father's responsibility to begin to provide financial support for the child if paternity is established.
6. The potential father's failure to file a paternity action pursuant to title 25, chapter 6, article 1, within thirty days of completion of the service of the notice prescribed by this section, bars the potential father from bringing or maintaining any action to assert any interest in the child.
H. A mother may apply to the court for permission to omit her address from the affidavit and from the notice to potential fathers. The court shall grant this request if the mother shows to the court's satisfaction this is necessary to protect her safety

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Originally Posted By Roger L.

Mr. Gwilliam:

I have read all of your posts, and don't know that I have ever gotten this much helpful information in one place at one time on a topic that is so important to my family and me.

I must admit that I did doubt a bit at first that it would work that easily, especially after the big run around that I have received from attorneys over the years on this topic. They either didn't know what they were talking about and wanted to educate themselves on my dollar, or they knew that the uncontested adoptions could be handled free of charge by the County Attorney and didn't want to loose the business. Either way, I was hopeful that I had really found my answer, and gave your advice a try.

I am now back here to report that what you said was true, and it worked just like you said it would. You were right that I will have to do my part and put in some effort to get the County Attorney to help me, which I could probably pay the office of an attorney to do for me if I was willing to, but what it has done is finally give me some hope that I can take care of this problem that has been nagging at me for so long.

The funniest thing is that I was so overwhelmed by finding this way out of my problem with my two stepdaughters that when I went home that night, I just could not speak a word to them. I had been thinking about it all the way home and was kind of broken down in my heart. I just hugged them real tight and cried, without saying anything. Then they said, “Daddy, what happened that was so bad that you are crying like this?”

They mean so much to me that I was just overcome with emotion. Yes, me the tough redneck construction worker, crying for the first time in front of “my” daughters. When I was finally able to tell them what was giong on, then we all just sat there and cried together.

Then my wife came home and saw us there crying, and said: “Oh no, what happened!” Then we all started to laugh. Our tears are tears of joy, because we can now be a family.

Thanks a bunch. You have made a big difference to some pretty special ladies in my family, and also to their redneck Daddy (and Hubby).

[Archive]

Originally Posted By Andrea

Great message.... I was concerned after speaking with atty yesterday who stated out case would cost $3700.00 even knowing the biological father would not contest. I am definately looking at doing this myself but want to make sure that all my T's are crossed and I's are dotted.