[shannondl]

Hello,
My name is Shannon, and I would like to share my story and see if anyone has any comments or information for me.....
I have been married to my husband for 9 yrs and together for 11 yrs. We have four girls.(his mine and ours) Our oldest girls were 11 and 12 months old when we got together, and then we had twin girls. My 11yr old daughter has expressed her feelings about my husband adopting her/or to at least legally change her name to his. Since kindergarten she has gone by his last name, but now that she is older she notices her Bio fathers last name on everything(report cards etc...) She hates it!
Her Bio father has not contacted us since she was 2 1/2, never paid a dime of child support. The last time that he saw her we told him that we wanted to go to court and do things properly for our daughters sake.(no more showing up once every year) We never heard from him again. We moved a couple of years later, but my parents have had the same number for 25 yrs and same residence since I and the Bio father were about 10. We grew up together. My husband wants so much to adopt her, because he is truly her father and loves her dearly!! The Bio father is not on the birth certificate, but her name reads his last name. Is this considered abandonment? How do I find out what to do to start my process? He also never proved his paternity!! Just walked away when he found out he would have to come up with money !! Any info would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Kallen330]

If you have grounds then you can file for a stepparent adoption.

Grounds for Termination of Parental Rights Nevada

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 432B.393(3) (WESTLAW through Nev. 2003 Legis. Serv., Ch. 2)

An agency which provides child welfare services is not required to make the reasonable efforts required above if the court finds that:

A parent or other primary caretaker of the child has:

Committed, aided or abetted in the commission or, or attempted, conspired or solicited to commit murder or voluntary manslaughter;

Caused the abuse or neglect of the child, or of another child of the parent or primary caretaker, which resulted in substantial bodily harm to the abused or neglected child;

Caused the abuse or neglect of the child, a sibling of the child or another child in the household and the abuse or neglect was so extreme or repetitious as to indicate that any plan to return the child to his home would result in an unacceptable risk to the health or welfare of the child; or
Abandoned the child for 60 or more days, and the identity of the parent of the child is unknown and cannot be ascertained through reasonable efforts;

A parent of the child has, for the previous 6 months, had the ability to contact or communicate with the child and made no more than token efforts to do so;

The parental rights of a parent to a sibling of the child have been terminated by a court order upon any basis other than the execution of a voluntary relinquishment of those rights by a natural parent, and the court order is not currently being appealed;

The child or a sibling of the child was previously removed from his home, adjudicated to have been abused or neglected, returned to his home and subsequently removed from his home as a result of additional abuse or neglect; or

The child is less than 1 year or age, the father of the child is not married to the mother of the child and the father of the child:

Has failed within 60 days after learning of the birth of the child, to visit the child, to commence proceedings to establish his paternity of the child or to provide financial support for the child; or
Is entitled to seek custody of the child but fails to do so within 60 days after learning that the child was placed in foster care; or
The child was delivered to a provider of emergency services pursuant to law.
Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 128.105 (WESTLAW through 1999 Reg. Sess.)

The primary consideration in any proceeding to terminate parental rights must be whether the best interests of the child will be served by the termination. An order of the court for termination of parental rights must be made in light of the considerations set forth in §§ 128.106 to 128.109, inclusive, and based on the evidence and include a finding that the best interests of the child would be served by the termination of parental rights; and the conduct of the parent or parents demonstrated at least one of the following:

Abandonment of the child;

Neglect of the child;

Unfitness of the parent;

Failure of parental adjustment;

Risk of serious physical, mental, or emotional injury to the child if he were returned to, or remains in, the home of his parent or parents;

Only token efforts by the parent or parents to support or communicate with the child; to prevent neglect of the child; to avoid being an unfit parent; or to eliminate the risk of serious physical, mental, or emotional injury to the child; or
With respect to termination of the parental rights of one parent, the abandonment by that parent.
Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 128.106 (1997)

In determining neglect by or unfitness of a parent, the court shall consider, without limitation, the following conditions which may diminish suitability as a parent:


Emotional illness, mental illness, or mental deficiency of the parent which renders the parents consistently unable to care for the immediate and continuing needs of the child for extended periods of time;
Conduct toward a child of a physically or sexually cruel or abusive nature;
Conduct that violates any provision of the statute prohibiting the sale of a person to another;
Excessive use of intoxicating liquors, controlled substances or dangerous drugs which renders the parent consistently unable to care for the child;
Repeated or continuous failure by the parent, although physically and financially able, to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, education or other care and control necessary for his physical, mental, and emotional health and development, but a person who, legitimately practicing his religious beliefs, does not provide specified medical treatment for a child is not for that reason alone a negligent parent;
Conviction of a parent for commission of a felony, if the facts of the crime are of such a nature as to indicate the unfitness of the parent to provide adequate care and control necessary for the child's physical, mental, or emotional health and development;
Unexplained injury or death of a sibling of the child;
Inability of appropriate public or private agencies to reunite the family despite reasonable efforts on the part of the agencies.
Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 128.107 (1997)

If a child is not in the physical custody of the parent or parents, the court, in determining whether parental rights should be terminated, shall consider, without limitation:

The services provided or offered to the parent or parents to facilitate a reunion with the child;
The physical, mental, or emotional condition and needs of the child and his desires regarding termination, if the court determines he is of sufficient capacity to express his desires;
The effort the parent or parents have made to adjust their circumstances, conduct or conditions to make it in the child's best interest to return him to his home after a reasonable length of time, including but not limited to the payment of a reasonable portion of substitute physical care and maintenance, if financially able; the maintenance of regular visitation or other contact with the child which was designed and carried out in a plan to reunite the child with the parent or parents; and the maintenance of regular contact and communication with the custodian of the child;
Whether additional services would be likely to bring about lasting parental adjustment enabling a return of the child to the parent or parents within a predictable period.
Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 128.109 (WESTLAW through 1999 Reg. Sess.)

If a child has been placed outside his home pursuant to law, the following provisions must be applied for the purposes of determining the conduct of the parent:

If the child has resided outside his home pursuant to that placement for 14 months of any 20 consecutive months, it must be presumed that the parent of parents have demonstrated only token efforts to care for the child;
If the parent or parents fail to comply substantially with the terms and conditions of a plan to reunite the family within 6 months after the date on which the child was placed or the plan was commenced, whichever occurs later, that failure to comply is evidence of failure of parental adjustment.
If a child has been placed outside his home pursuant to statute, and has resided outside his home pursuant to that placement for 14 months of any 20 consecutive months, the best interests of the child must be presumed to be served by termination of parental rights.

[shannondl]

Thankyou so much for your information. Seems to me abandonment is definitely the case!!! So we will see what an attorney says and go from there.
Thankyou, Shannon