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Step Parent Adoption Reversal

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rainbow3016

Junior Member
Kansas.

I am wondering if my 8 year old daughter's biological Father would be able to reverse a step parent adoption that took place 5 years ago.

Basically the bio father abandoned her at age 2, when I got married in 05 and consented to my husband adopting her. My husband and I were divorced in 07 because he was abusive to me. So he has been out of the picture and hasn't seen my daughter in over 3 years. Now the Biological father wants to take me to court to have the adoption reversed, but I don't want to agree to it, I don't think it would be best for her. He has an anger problem as well and I would be afraid to let him have her in his custody. Neither one of the men have seen her in several years.

Can he reverse this adoption since the adoptive father has been out of the picture for so long? Would the courts need my consent to reverse the adoption?

Thank You.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Kansas.

I am wondering if my 8 year old daughter's biological Father would be able to reverse a step parent adoption that took place 5 years ago.

Basically the bio father abandoned her at age 2, when I got married in 05 and consented to my husband adopting her. My husband and I were divorced in 07 because he was abusive to me. So he has been out of the picture and hasn't seen my daughter in over 3 years. Now the Biological father wants to take me to court to have the adoption reversed, but I don't want to agree to it, I don't think it would be best for her. He has an anger problem as well and I would be afraid to let him have her in his custody. Neither one of the men have seen her in several years.

Can he reverse this adoption since the adoptive father has been out of the picture for so long? Would the courts need my consent to reverse the adoption?

Thank You.
On what grounds is he trying to reverse the adoption?
 

milspecgirl

Senior Member
without your consent, he would have to prove that something about the adoption was illegal or incorrect (wrong filiing, procedure, etc).
 

rainbow3016

Junior Member
Zigner, the grounds are that her adoptive father hasn't seen her in almost 4 years and we are divorced. So basically she doesn't have a father in her life. I'm pretty sure the adoptive father would consent to the adoption reversal just because he doesn't want to be responsible for paying support.
 

rainbow3016

Junior Member
nextwife, he didn't show his temper during the first year we were married, the abuse began shortly after the adoption. I thought I knew him.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Zigner, the grounds are that her adoptive father hasn't seen her in almost 4 years and we are divorced. So basically she doesn't have a father in her life. I'm pretty sure the adoptive father would consent to the adoption reversal just because he doesn't want to be responsible for paying support.
The legal stranger (bio-dad) seems to have no grounds to reverse the adoption. He can try to do ANOTHER adoption, but that would require the consent of the child's legal parents.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
Zigner, the grounds are that her adoptive father hasn't seen her in almost 4 years and we are divorced. So basically she doesn't have a father in her life. I'm pretty sure the adoptive father would consent to the adoption reversal just because he doesn't want to be responsible for paying support.


No, that's not going to be good enough. He cannot challenge the adoption simply because he's changed his mind and now wants to play Dad again; he would have to show that there was a legal issue with the adoption.

Was he served properly?
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
Yes he was served and signed away his rights.

Thanks for the advice.


Then I cannot see a court overturning the adoption even if both your exes wanted it to happen.

It's also VERY unfair for your ex - he is NOT Dad no matter how much he wants to think he is - to want to do this to the child.
 

rainbow3016

Junior Member
I have another question concerning my ex husband, which is her adoptive father. I had 2 children with him while we were married. Right now he has court ordered supervised visits with the kids, (but he hasn't actually had any visits and hasn't seen them in almost 4 years). The reason why he has supervised visits is because of the physical abuse against me. He was arrested 2 times for assault against me, one of which was a felony. Then he was arrested again for assaulting my sick father. He also has a child abuse charge from a child he had in a previous marriage, which he gave up custody of. Needless to say I'm scared to DEATH that he would ever get to visit the kids alone. I know he can be explosive. I'm just wondering if it would ever be possible that a judge would give him shared custody or let the kids spend the night with him, assuming he visited them regularly for a time under the current supervised visitation.

Would his violent background be enough evidence to a judge that he shouldn't keep the kids alone or overnight?
Are supervised visits ever a permanent arrangement, or are they just a temporary solution until the parent can convince a judge they are competent of parenting, after treatment or counseling.

Thanks again!
 
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Proserpina

Senior Member
I have another question concerning my ex husband, which is her adoptive father. I had 2 children with him while we were married. Right now he has court ordered supervised visits with the kids, (but he hasn't actually had any visits and hasn't seen them in almost 4 years). The reason why he has supervised visits is because of the physical abuse against me. He was arrested 2 times for assault against me, one of which was a felony. Then he was arrested again for assaulting my sick father. He also has a child abuse charge from a child he had in a previous marriage, which he gave up custody of. Needless to say I'm scared to DEATH that he would ever get to visit the kids alone. I know he can be explosive. I'm just wondering if it would ever be possible that a judge would give him shared custody or let the kids spend the night with him, assuming he visited them regularly for a time under the current supervised visitation.

Would his violent background be enough evidence to a judge that he shouldn't keep the kids alone or overnight?

Thanks again!


It's possible that he could eventually get unsupervised visitation. But since he's not bothering even with the supervised, I'm not sure you should spend time worrying about it at this point.

If nothing else he would have to go through some hoops.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
It's possible that he could eventually get unsupervised visitation. But since he's not bothering even with the supervised, I'm not sure you should spend time worrying about it at this point.

If nothing else he would have to go through some hoops.
Some fairly serious hoops, I would think, considering the overall circumstances.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
Then I cannot see a court overturning the adoption even if both your exes wanted it to happen.

It's also VERY unfair for your ex - he is NOT Dad no matter how much he wants to think he is - to want to do this to the child.
No, but I think Zigner is right - the court might let the original dad adopt the child if all the adults agree.
 

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