step parent adoption

[shesmyangel]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

I have a beautiful 3 year old and a wonderful man in my life now, he has a great job and is starting his own business. We are getting married soon and we both would like to have him adopt my daughter. My fiance has been in her life longer then her biological father and he is an amazing father figure to her. Her biological father can not even come close to what my fiance is for her, we had been together 5 years, but for those 5 years I was being abused by him, mentally, physically, and emotionally. My daughter was born and things seemed to get better, until he realized he had to own up to being a responsible parent. Things got worse then they had been before, i had enough, i could not have my daughter around the violence even if he was her father. I filed a restraining order (I have a FRO which states he cant be near my daughter) and several complaints against him. He did have visitation but i had that revoked because when he would have visits he would leave her with his family and stalk & harass me and he did have an abusive outburst on her. There was NO WAY my daughter was going to be subjected to that EVER, and by her own father made it the hardest. So, he has been in jail for the past 2 years, we are still awaiting trial for the domestic violence case. He is looking at 18 years. Is it possible my fiance can adopt my daughter once we are married? We both want this so badly for her to have a stable future and 2 loving parents. Her biological father is on the birth certificate and I imagine that would cause an issue, im not sure if he has to sign over his rights or have then been annuled by the family court already? I tried to file for full custody but they told me if he had his visitation rights annuled that he had no rights to her. Thank you.

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by shesmyangel

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

I have a beautiful 3 year old and a wonderful man in my life now, he has a great job and is starting his own business. We are getting married soon and we both would like to have him adopt my daughter. My fiance has been in her life longer then her biological father and he is an amazing father figure to her. Her biological father can not even come close to what my fiance is for her, we had been together 5 years, but for those 5 years I was being abused by him, mentally, physically, and emotionally. My daughter was born and things seemed to get better, until he realized he had to own up to being a responsible parent. Things got worse then they had been before, i had enough, i could not have my daughter around the violence even if he was her father. I filed a restraining order (I have a FRO which states he cant be near my daughter) and several complaints against him. He did have visitation but i had that revoked because when he would have visits he would leave her with his family and stalk & harass me and he did have an abusive outburst on her. There was NO WAY my daughter was going to be subjected to that EVER, and by her own father made it the hardest. So, he has been in jail for the past 2 years, we are still awaiting trial for the domestic violence case. He is looking at 18 years. Is it possible my fiance can adopt my daughter once we are married? We both want this so badly for her to have a stable future and 2 loving parents. Her biological father is on the birth certificate and I imagine that would cause an issue, im not sure if he has to sign over his rights or have then been annuled by the family court already? I tried to file for full custody but they told me if he had his visitation rights annuled that he had no rights to her. Thank you.

What exactly were you told?

(As a general rule revoking visitation does not equate to terminating parental rights).

[momofrose]

Was his visitation terminated or his rights revoked? two COMPLETELY different things!