how do you prove absent parent unfit so step parent can adopt?

[michelle327]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Georgia

my husband and i are raising his one, and my three children together. all 4 of the children were abandoned by their bio-"parents" who have been in their lives only sporadically and at a whim. all three individuals have been involved in drugs, made dangerous and/or illegal choices and have failed to support the kids financially.

How do we prove them unfit in order to adopt eachothers children and become a consistant, autonimous family?

[tigger22472]

You need to google.. Termination of Parental Rights in Georgia. THey will tell you what the requirments are needed. Some states just have a period of time where there is no contact. Some require no support also. Generally it is for one year... and most states also usually require you and your husband be married for at least a year.

Have you approached either of the bio parents and asked if they would give concent? That's the easiest way. Otherwise it falls back to the TPR rules. You must remember though that it says the court MAY terminate without the bio consent. However, they will have a harder time proving why they haven't been around or supported the children (assuming there are court orders for both) then fighting the adoptions.

[listed3]

Note that the requirements for stepparent adoptions are often different, and easier, than the general statutes on terminating parental rights. In my state, I just had to prove (1) Biodad had failed to provide reasonable support for one year, (2) Biodad was not likely to do so in the future, (3) adoption in best interests.

One thing I argued was that if the adoption didn't go through, there would have been a contempt proceeding to enforce the child support, and he'd just been going in and out of jail anyway. Also, see if you can get the criminal records of the Biodad/Biomom. Otherwise, you'll just have to testify to what you know first hand (or have others come in and testify about what they've actually observed) about the dangerous/criminal activity of the Bioparents. My guy made the mistake of putting a bunch of his craziness in emails, which I was then able to supply to the court.