adoption of step daughter

What is the name of your state? texas I have a six year old step daughter. My wife and I just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. we have 2 sons together. one is 3 and the other is one. My step daughters biological father as see her about 3 or 4 times since we have been together and that has only been for about 2 hrs or so. his name does not appear on the birth certificate as her father and i was wondering how easy or hard would it be for me to legally adopt her and could i just have my name put on the birth certificate. Thanks for all of your help.

If you simply add your name to the birth certificate, you will be committing fraud which may cause you a lot of trouble in the future. I've heard of this being done, but personally I don't think it's worth the risk.

Paternity must be established before biodad's parental rights can be terminated. This can be done by a DNA test - court ordered at a paternity hearing, or biodad may agree that he is the father.

After paternity is established, you may ask biodad to consent to the adoption. If he refuses, you ask the court to terminate his rights due to abandonment, lack or interest, failure to support, etc. The court will do whatever is in the child's best interest. That is the main objective.

Guidelines differ from state to state. I'm not a lawyer, just someone who's fought this same battle in Indiana.

Good luck to you.