[Smacky]

I was adopted by my ex-step-father when I was a teenager. I'm now 31 and I want to "unadopt" myself. I want to get him gone and get my biological father back on my legal birth cert. I basically want to go back to the last name I was born with legally, and fix it so the ex-step father has no legal rights to me whatsoever. The ex-step father has had nothing to do with me since he and my mom divorced when I was 19. I want to know where to start, where to look, what should I do? I can't really hire a lawyer to do this as I don't have money, but i'd love to have an idea of what I need to do to get this done. Thanks in advance!

[DianeS]

As long as the adoption was done legally, there is no way to be un-adopted, or to void the adoption.

However, your birth father or another adult male could adopt you. Adult adoption is legal in all states, I believe. You don't need anyone's permission to do it, either. That would put a different name on your newly-issued birth certificate, and give a different person those "legal rights" that you don't want your ex-stepfather to have.

Alternatively, you can do a legal name change yourself now, and you don't need anyone's permission for it. And a will and a living will should take care of anything another related adult might try to do against your choices. But neither of those are foolproof, which is probably why so many adult adoptees choose to have someone else adopt them rather than following those processes.

Good luck.

[Smacky]

Thank you very much! I guess I will just start looking for name change info. I don't want to ask my dad to re-adopt me as I know it would cost. But at least I know where to go now. It seems a bit silly that I can't undo what's been done, since I'm an adult and the ex-step father may as well not even exist now.

Thanks!