Step Parent Adoption

[Alucky1]

I am in Indiana.
I am a single parent of a 9 year old daughter whose father pays regular child support which is garnished from his paycheck, but he has only seen her once in the past 9 years and does not wish to see her. I am getting married this next year and was curious to find out how difficult it would be to have my fiance adopt her after we are married. I do not believe my daughters father would object to this, he does not want or plan to be in her life. My fiance has been the only father figure my daughter has known and I was wondering what will all happen when we decide to persue him becoming her adoptive father. Will we need a lawyer? How expensive will it be? How long will the process take? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[brisgirl825]

You will absolutely need a lawyer. I recommend getting a free consult to find out how long you need to be married before SD can adopt and other info. The only way that you can do this, is if dad agrees. A lawyer will draw up the paperwork and serve dad to get his signature. The process takes as long as it takes, there's no way to know.
I have been waiting to just get a court date for 3 wks now. So who knows will we'll actually get to go before a judge.
I have a website that has some info for oyu.
GL.
http://library.adoption.com/termination-of-parental-rights/grounds-for-termination-of-parental-rights-indiana/article/8494/1.html

 

[Alucky1]

Thanks for the info brisgirl, I appreciate it!
Good Luck to you too!

 

[tigger22472]

Where in Indiana (what county) are you located?

 

[Alucky1]

Currently in Vanderburgh County.

 

[tigger22472]

Currently in Vanderburgh County.

Ok, I'm up north of you so that won't help. You do need to lawyer because you need to make sure that notification is done correctly as well as the home study that Indiana requires. Indiana generally will require you be married a year but your total length of time together helps also (i.e my husband and I had started living together in early 2000, married in late 2002, filed for the adoption early 2004 so we had been together for 4 years but only married a year and a half). As far as the CS, it depends, in my case the ex wasn't paying but some states don't consider that, especially if it's forced.