[buggygirl]

I have been through the message boards here and haven't found anything pertaining to a Georgia resident. I am hoping that there is someone out there that can help so here it goes.....
I have four children from a previous marriage, and have since remarried.My new husband and I have been married for 3 1/2 years, together for 4.We now have a child together as well.He has been there since before my younger child from the previous marriage was born.He would now like to adopt them so that we can be a complete family under one name.The divorce granted me FULL legal and physical custody of the children.Since the divorce my ex has not paid even one dime to support, and has not seen them since July 2000, and has not called them since Sept. 2001.I have made several attempts to find him through family and other locating resources to discuss the adoption with him and to no avail have been able to locate him.The only information that I can get from family is that he has left the country(Mexico)and they have left messages for him to contact me.Obviously he won't and hasn't, he owes money!We have been in contact with several attorneys and have been told that the cost is going to be great.We have tried contacting the court and have asked about DIY packets and they are not offered.I am sure all out there who have large families can relate, because we have such a large family to support we cannot afford the attorneys costs.Does anyone,anyone out there know of any other options for us?Somone,anyone PLEASE HELP US!!!What I don't understand is if I have full legal, and full physical custody why I need his permission to begin with!And why I have to get his permission to do anything and he can flit around as he pleases without mine!My oldest from that marriage who is now 8 knows who his bf is and wants nothing to do with him, inculding the name that he carries.And the same goes for the other three.This whole situation has the entire family upset.PLEASE HELP US!!!


Ps......Just another peice of information........
My ex is a real piece of work...during the divorce he even tried to terminate his own rights on two of the children so the the amount of support he would be ordered to pay would be less than the amount that would be ordered for four.Thats how much he cares about them.Of course the judge wouldn't let him do that, I think he knew what he was up to.But that didn't stop him from trying.

[dec21]

I don't know if this websit well help you but it has some good information for you state.



http://www.gaadoptionresources.org/r...ion4.html#top:(

[buggygirl]

Thanks for your reply, but unfortunately the link you provided only gives information for parents who wish to adopt children via agencies, and private. It wasn't really informative as far as a step parent adoption goes....But I appreciate the info just the same.

[EL1]

Why not seek to get an appointment with the judge who ordered the divorce?? Get the ex's rights terminated.
Termination of parental rights will be the only way your husband can legally adopt his step children.
You may have a strong case against the ex if he is failing to pay child support and has skipped the country. And it sounds like he wants to terminate his rights.
There are online legal attorneys who offer free advice. http://www.nolo.com/ http://freeadvice.com/
There are web sites that offer legal forms for you to go thru this process on your own. The costs are much less than an attorney's costs. There are filing fees and court costs. For instance: filing for divorce costs around $125.00 then court costs.

Good luck
EL

[buggygirl]

Thanks EL for your reply. I would most definately arrange a meeting with the judge who granted the divorce only one major hitch in that.....We were divorced in the state of Nevada, and I now reside in Georgia. I was able to find out that I can terminate rights without his consent. And it would have to be without because I can't seem to find him to get permission. You would think he would be most willing to sign off rights given the fact that he obviously doesn't care about them. I have spoken with his brother though yesterday, and he said that he spoke with him a couple of weeks ago and told him that I wanted to talk to him. He said that he would call me, but obviously he hasn't as of yet. I did however get an address from his sister though. She said that he has come back into the country, and that he has established residency in Phoenix, Az. I am in the process of writing him a letter explaining our position to see if I can't get any results this way. But thank you for the links, I will definately be checking into them.

[EL1]

Well hopefully you will be able to convince him via snail mail to terminate his rights.
I believe you'll get some sound advice from legal counsel on those sites to steer you in the right direction.
BTW, I am also in Ga. Just moved here from NM. (small world)
I am not familiar with Ga law yet.
Best of luck to you
EL

[pepdebk]

Just for your information, I am going through the same thing you are and got all of the information that I needed from the public library. The federal law states that an absent parent that has not paid child support or seen his children in 6 months has already given up his rights to the children. The one thing that you should know is that with a stepparent adoption is that the court will require counceling of the children and the stepparent. They also require an FBI Check done on the the stepparent. You have to pay for the counciling and the the FBI Check it's only about $35.00. Then you can go infront of the Judge and make the adoption legal. The library has a copy of all of the forms that you need to do a stepparent adoption yourself, without the BF consent. I am currently doing the same thing. If there is any more info. I can give, Let me know.

DP

[buggygirl]

Thanks for your reply P! Does the counseling apply in all states? I knew about the FBI background check, but I was also told that in Georgia I would need to have Social Services come in and do an investigation as well, that I would also have to pay for. I was told that the cost for that was around $150-$300. I always knew that I could file myself, but no one would tell me where I could get the forms to do it! Thanks for that info! I was just wondering though. Since my paperwork was originally filed in Nevada and I know that I am going to have to domesticate the order. Would I be able to find the forms at the library to do that on my own as well? Also, do I find these forms at the public library or a law library? I am going to wait just a little bit, and I do mean a little bit, to see if I can get any results via snail mail. Just so that if I have to do this the hard way I can show proof to the judge that I genuinely tried to reach him! Thanks!

[pepdebk]

You can find the forms at the public library, and the counceling is for all states. It just depends on the ages of the children, if their under age 10 they dont have to. The same is for Social Services, it just depends on the ages. As for you filing in Georgia, I believe that you can, my divorce was in California and the Adoption is taking place in New Mexico. You can also run a news paper ad for 1 month in 4 different news papers, after that the count considers him served. Hope this helps. Bye

[NikkiLGA]

The thing is you will have to find an attorney to file this type of adoption for you. He/she will have to terminate the parental rights by filing a notice in the newspaper in the County you now reside in as well as the county your ex-husband last resided in. Once the required amount of time has passed, a Judge will terminate his parental rights, and then the adoption can proceed. I do not know what area of Georgia you are in, but there are attorneys who handle these types of matters.

Good luck - NikkiLGA

[althea101]

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

[buggygirl]

Thanks so much for those links!!!! Where they really didn't help all that much there was a pop up on one of them that really did help!! I was able to get a attorney to take my case for a total of $600!!!! And since retaining him he has been able to locate my ex so that we can get this thing rolling for minimal cost and without him knowing what is going on before he is served with the termination paperwork! But I wanted to thank you all for all the responses, and helpful advice. It really does pay to shop around and know what you are talking about before talking to attorneys! Thanks again!!!