terminating parental rights

my ex husband has not seen our children in 7 years. They are now ages 9 and 8.I have never received child support.Can I have his rights to our children terminated? I live in the state of Virgina.

hi there! i just went through the exact same thing with my sister and her x. you can go to your local court house and file abandonment charges. all that means is that your x hasn't seen or contacted the children in over a year and the courts will give him notice to appear to explain why! if he won't show up they take his rights away so the children can be adopted by your new love if thats the case. when he signs them away or they are taken away he can have no contact with them ever! but he will still have to pay support. then he will be in contempt for not paying for all this time! that means jail!!!! if you file the papers yourself its only about $35.00. good luck

[MySonsMom]

Once someones parental rights are relinguished, they are no longer responsible for child support...ANY support. I don't beleive it's that *easy* to terminate the rights of this parent. States don't like to do it without an adopting person there to take on the responsibility..States don't want to be *responsible* for the support of a child that one of the childs parental rights were revoked. If there is someone to adopt the child, and the Father consents the adoption it is fairly easy then..

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~MySonsMom~