CA stepparent adoption, bioparent objects

What is the name of your state?

Hello

I'm in Bay area, CA
My current husband wants to adopt my child from 1st marriage.
we came here 4 years ago with her, and i married.

Bio-parent lives in Russia.

I got a book by Nolo.com about stepparent adoption

http://nolo.com/lawstore/products/product.cfm/ObjectID/8F155C75-E687-4538-9DB7333260340C9D


I will go for stepparent adoption based on willful failure by bio-father.

he didn't see her for more than 4 years, no child support.

before we left for the US since our divorce there was time period of 5 months during which he didn't do anything.


when i found him through our relatives/friends in moscow and called him and then sent document to sign he refused and yelled at me over the phone.

so i got social service agency positive report and going to set up court hearing day.

what seems not quite clear to me is
how should i give him citation copy?

the easiest for me is to use personal service - one of my russian friends in moscow,

but what if the court/judge will consider professional server services best?
I called one of them they said it might take up to 3 months to deliver citation copy in russia.

will this argument be reasonable for the judge?

thank you,
and any advice/recommendation will be appreciated

I honestly have no idea if a US Court can terminate the paternal rights of a father in a situation such as yours. The TPRs may need to be done by a court THERE and then your children would be free to be adopted here. I'm guessing that because the children were not born or concieved in the US, the father has remained, (I don't know if you got legal permission of the father or of the court there that had custody jurisdiction to remove them to the US?) and a court here may not (not certain) have jurisdiction to do this.

The Hague Convention laws may apply here.

My daughtrer's parents rights had to be legally terminated in her birth country before we could complete a readoption here in a state court. WE needed a "legal tanslation" of the Bulgarian court docs for the court that did the readoption here.

Writer, you need to hire a family law attorney. This is a complicated matter and not for the "do it yourselfer's"

We made it!!

ok, people, we've made it
and today in the superior court my husband adopted my child from 1st marriage!

the book from Nolo about stepparent adoption helped us
as well as my internet search, posting on forums and calls to the court clerks.

good luck,
you can do it yourself if you can