[bjbear43]

I have a son that will be 16yrs old in Aug, he is wanting to be adopted by his step-dad, I was granted full custody of my kids in my divorce in 1998, his natural father had only supervised visitation, but he went to prison for drug charges, my son has not seen nor heard from him since then, I have no idea where he is or if he is still in prison or out, my question would be.....

Is there anyway my husband can adopt my son without us having to try and find his natural dad and contact him in this matter? Also we now live in Arkansas but was divorced in Oklahoma, would we have to file here in Arkansas or Oklahoma?

Thank you in advance for any responces!
Brenda

[bjbear43]

Also would we have to contact an attorney or can I go to the county court house and get papers to file through the courts?

[Eventually]

In just about all cases, the bio-father must be notified. You would file where you and your son live now. Many people have their own opinions about having a lawyer for a step-parent adoption, but I am one who wouldn't have been able to do it without a lawyer. I didn't want to take any chances of whether or not I was doing everything correctly and I didn't want to risk making an error so that the bio-father could come back later and then say that the adoption was void because of a mistake. Good luck!