Curious

What is the name of your state? Arkansas


Hello. Let me preface my post by saying that I apologize if this inquiry has been stated many times, as I have attempted to read many posts prior to making one of my own. I realize my post will be quite lengthy, but this is so I do not miss any detail that may be important for some reason.

Now on to my question(s) --

At 20 I became pregnant and the biological father left when I was around 5 months pregnant. When I say 'left'... what I really mean is I have not seen nor heard from him since. That was 8 years ago.

Two years ago, when my son was 6, I met a man that would soon become my fiance. We have just recently become engaged this month and do not plan on officially marrying for another 6 months to a year. I have never been married before. Neither has my fiance. My son will then be almost 9.

My fiance is interested in adopting my son.

I have spent a great deal of time on the phone and the internet attempting (in vain, it seems) to locate some real information concerning the adoption process for my state.

I would like to petition the court to relinquish the parental rights of the biological father prior to adoption. However, I am unsure of the parental concent laws in regards to specifics.

While I have seen similar responses on other threads here, they tend to all state the same thing in different ways:

**************
When Parental Consent is Not Needed:
Parent has:

Deserted a child.
Failed to communicate or provide care or support for the child.
Relinquished rights or had them terminated.
Been declared incompetent.

**************

Naturally I'm looking at the 'deserted the child' angle here.

There has been absolutely NO communication with the biological father since he found out I was pregnant. I have not received any type of child support within the entire 8 year stint. In short, the biological father fell off the face of the earth.

What I am wondering is.....
while most of the justifications are adequately defined, there is no clear definition to 'deserted'... and I'm speaking specifically in terms of statutes of limitation.

I cannot seem to find any information on the amount of 'desertion' time applies to the context of concent rights. Are the limits of desertion set up based on the judge's/court's/locations discretion?

It seems that 'deserted' is being used as a semantics ploy... a blanketed term. It is just too general to carry much legitimate weight as it stands alone.

Regardless of the new marriage/adoption, do I stand any chance in receiving my request to have the biological father's parental rights terminated?
What about the issue of concent in regards to the possible adoption?
What exactly does 'desertion' cover???

I genuinely appreciate anyone to take the time and help me.
If one can locate some useful information on the internet for my state (and appropriate issue), please feel free to post that as well.

Thank you

"I have not received any type of child support within the entire 8 year stint."
*** Presumably, you are making that statement to support your contention that the father has abandoned the child. However, the real issue is.... was there a court order of child support?? If not, then there is no legal obligation for him to have provided support.

"do I stand any chance in receiving my request to have the biological father's parental rights terminated?"
*** Of course you do. How much of a 'chance' will depend on what your state requires in the process of terminating the parental rights.

The Arkansas statutes require that ANY process of terminating parent rights must be done by an attorney in court. This is covered in §9-27-341, and can be found at:
http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/NXT/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&vid=blr:code

Therefore, your best source of assistance would be to consult a local attorney to see what can be done.

Also, more information can be found at:
http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/general/legal/statutes/stats02/termin/ar.cfm

When I said 'child support', I meant any sort of voluntary interest.
I realize now that I used a wrong term as it does imply a court
ordered action for support. Sorry

Thank you for the links. They do provide some information for me.

This can be a very stressful situation - if you let it. Biodad has NO leg to stand on in court. The judge's follow whatever is in the best interest of the child. It's obvious where those best interesta are.

Good luck!

Then again here is a flip side.... once dad is advised, he can always say he wasn’t aware he had a child out there and try and establish a relationship with his child. His leaving you while you were only 5 mo. Pregnant it's your word against his that you were even pregnant when he walked out, or that you even told him you were pregnant.........

so I do see that he might have a leg to stand on it just depends on whether he decides to stand on it or not... JMO..

Yes. This is another aspect I anticipated.
Contacting the biological father after all this time bothers (scares?) me... I won't lie. I don't know much about him now, but I knew him then... and he was just the liar. He may have changed.
I fear this attempt (of mine) may backfire and cause a greater 'snowball' effect that I do not want. It's not that I mind him being notified... I'm more bothered that my son's world will be turned upside-down because of the idiot and a possible powerplay.

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun.
My consistant worries about this situation has caused me to imagine almost all possible outcomes and it is the main reason I have posted my query on this BBS.

My son hasn't been denied the knowledge that he would be adopted nor the knowledge that this person I am marrying isn't his biological father... however, I fear that (possibly) being arm-twisted into relations with the biological father after 8 silent years is a bit pretentious should the biological father *suddenly* seem interested.

Out of curiosity, as there may be more problems than you have realized. Is the bio dad listed on the bc? Has paternity ever been established? Is there any kind of order standing ? If no paternity will have to be established first before termination of rights can even proceed.

the father is not listed on the birth certificate.
there is no paternity established.

something i hadn't considered yet.....