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May 14, 2012, 08:25:32 AM
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My fiance's wife has not had any contact for over 2 years with him or his daughter. What do I need to do to legally adopt her?
The adoption process is the act of terminating one parent's rights and obligations and granting those rights and obligations to another. In order to terminate rights, grounds must be shown unless you have the written consent of the person who will loose the rights and obligations. Often a parent will give that consent if the other parent will agree not to collect past due support. In the absence of consent, abandonment for a specified period can be grounds for terminating rights in most jurisdictions, but the abandonment generally means no support payments at all for the period, so if the parent makes just one payment after the adoption process is started, then there may not be the required abandonment.
The adoption process is the act of terminating one parent's rights and obligations and granting those rights and obligations to another. In order to terminate rights, grounds must be shown unless you have the written consent of the person who will loose the rights and obligations. Often a parent will give that consent if the other parent will agree not to collect past due support. In the absence of consent, abandonment for a specified period can be grounds for terminating rights in most jurisdictions, but the abandonment generally means no support payments at all for the period, so if the parent makes just one payment after the adoption process is started, then there may not be the required abandonment.