How to find out if an adoption went thru in Missouri

[sherkie]

i am in missouri and was wondering if there is any way to find out if an adoption has went thru?

 

[CMSC]

you may want to provide a little more info on this. Generally if a child is placed up for adoption then the bio parents are notified of the court hearing in which the adoption is declared. If you are a family member and know all of the info on the child and bio parents you could attempt to contact agencies to see if an adoption has been finalized.

 

[sherkie]

this would be an adoption of a child by the childs step-parent, the bio parent signed a letter that gave up parental rights, just a letter, not a legal letter or anything. the bio parent was never notified of this going to court or anything, should the bio parent been notifed? i didnt think that a letter would hold up that much in court?

 

[CMSC]

yes the bio parent who signed the paper would be notified by court of termination of rights.

Were these papers notarized or anything?? I doubt the paper is any good. But it all depends on the circumstances.

 

[sherkie]

no the paper was not notarized or anything, just signed by the bio parent, it was only signed because the other bio parent was using the kid as a weapon. i have heard that the adoption has went thru but cant find anything on case-net that shows where it did, and the bio parent was not notified by the court. so here i sit tryin to figure out where to look next...

 

[CMSC]

well, the bio parent who signed over the rights needs to contact the courts in the county the papers were supposedly taken to court in. File for visitaiton would be one way of finding out! They don't normally grant visitation if a parent has had their rights termintated! ALso can try obtaining birth cert. they won't release if the rights have been terminated either.

 

[sroutlaw]

Coupla quickies - we did a stepparent adoption in MO and it was VERY simple to do - our bio dad only had to sign and notarize a letter stating he gave up his rights - and we didn't have to have the court notify him of the proceedings because he voluntarily gave up rights. Also, in MO even if there is an error in an adoption proceeding, if one year goes by, it won't matter. The child is adopted and it is not contestible. This is so kids don't have bounce back parents - if this guy or gal did sign off his or her rights, most likely it is a done deal. Case.net will never show this because in MO adoptions even by stepparent are sealed; the birth certificate of my kids now reflects my hubby as their dad and their former parent is no longer on public record at all. Pretty weird huh? I think it is a good thing, but that is because I am on the one end of the deal; if I were a parent who somehow got screwed out of my kids ( forged adotion papers or something?) I would not be happy.

Anywho, check the statutes. Adoptions can't be revoked even for fraud, etc, after a certain time period. And "error of process" limits are one year. So if the guy didn't get notified and should have been ( I was unclear about whether he gave up rights and now is crying over it or had them terminated without consent ??) and a year has gone by - he is out of luck. MO is very reluctant to mess with a child's stability, as they see it.

S

 

[sroutlaw]

Rules of adoption in MO :
http://www.worldlawdirect.com/article.php/740

Hope it helps - if the guy didn't have a) notarized or b) two adults witnessing his consent, he made a boo boo - but as I said before MO law is on the side of the adopted child and family, either way.

S

 

[CMSC]

sroutlaw thanks for providing the poster with the statutes and missouri info, I hadn't had time to get it posted.
It is so interesting how easily it is in some states to terminate parental rights for step parent adoption.

 

[sherkie]

Thanks for all your help, it is really hard to find help sometimes!

sroutlaw, I was wondering if you told your kids? Do you talk about their bio-dad, I am hoping for my friends sake that the bio-parent tells the kid, I dont know if that is something that gets talked about or not???? I think that makes sense!! Than again I guess it all depends on if there is hard feelings and all, anyways thanks for the help!