Hello,

I consented to the stepparent adoption of my biological child. I have been informed by the other party that it was finalized in May, and they have received all the relevant paperwork, but I have not received anything. I don't even know the case number.

My child support case has not been closed yet, and I don't understand why. The other party has also supposedly sent in a waiver for the arrears. Nothing has gone through the Department of Child Support. And since I have no paperwork regarding the adoption being finalized, and proving that I am no longer the legal parent of the child, I have nothing I can send to DCS to get them to close the child support case.

Who can I contact to find out the case number, or otherwise to get a copy of the judgment finalizing the adoption? It seems to me that I ought to have a copy of this for myself, and I do not know why I never received anything. The other party refuses to give me a case number or courthouse contact number to call and I feel has not been telling the whole truth about the progress of the adoption.

There should be something on file at the court house where the adoption took place. As the biological parent you should not be held to the closed case status that is a part of most adoptions. There should be something listed by the name of the child, the step parent, or the other biological parent. You may need to contact a local attorney that specializes in family law to get the correct information as to how to go about getting a copy of the adoption records. Have you called the court house and asked about this? I am not surprised that DCF hasn't gotten anything as in most states they are very slow with anything they have to do with.

I haven't contact the courthouse yet at all, because I was under the impression that I would need a case number to give to them. I guess I will try asking them if they can look it up by name. I don't know if there's any sort of restrictions on who can receive a copy of it (for privacy purposes, or whatever). If so, I'd assume I'd have to prove who I am to show I was involved in the case.

You should have been contacted in some sort of way reguarding the adoption of your bio child. Have you went to court for any of the process? You should have been served papers, for the adoption.. Do you socialize with the other party? They should have keep you updated in some sort of way.

My fiance is going through this right now, he had to go to court sign a whole bunch of paper work. And it takes any where from 3 weeks to a year to be 100% finished.

I did not need to go to court. I was sent the paperwork I needed to sign to grant permission of the adoption. Beyond that, I have received no paperwork regarding the progress or finalization of the adoption and the termination of my parental rights.

I feel I should have received a copy of the judgment or something that proves the termination of my rights, because I need to have that to show to anyone, such as Dept. of Child Support, to prove that I am no longer legally responsible for the child.

It looks like I might be able to get the Dept. of Child Support to ask for the information. But I haven't tried that yet, as I haven't had the chance.

well as of Feb 17, 2007 the adoption took place and we have yet to recieve anything for finalization, we were told we have to wait for home study to be approved that could take up to 6 months then we would get papers in the mail stating we had x amount of days to change his mind, and if not it would be finalized after that so many x amount days, then following would be pur set of paper for our records..

I consented to the adoption in February. I have already been told that the adoption was finalized as of April 30. No home study was done. It was a simple private stepparent adoption, so it was not supposed to take very long. The other party has received all of the paperwork. I have received none.

I finally got the other parent to give me a case number, so I am going to try to call the court house with that. If that doesn't get me anywhere, I will try going through DCS.

I used to have shared custody of the child, up until spring 2006. So, I do fully know the other party. We are not on good terms though, and frankly, I don't trust a thing they say. So, I'll have to see if the case number they gave me is even the real thing. The other biological parent will no longer speak to me whatsoever, and keeps telling me that I am "harassing" her by asking her for the information regarding the case.:rolleyes: So if the case number given to me doesn't get me anywhere, I'll have to go through other avenues to get what I need.

I am still receiving child support bills, and that needs to stop. I would have expected the case to at least be closed shortly after the adoption was finalized. It's the other parent's written request to have the arrears satisfied that I figured would take a while to be processed. But thus far, the CS case has not even been closed or suspended.

JUst a note for you my fiance recieved his papers in the mail on 7/12/2007 that the adoption was finalized. So it took from 02/17/2007 - 07/12/2007 it took about 5 months