I'm currently engaged to be married, and my fiance and I are planning to go through the step-parent adoption process after we are married, so that I can adopt her son. The biological father has never been in her son's life (he's 3), and his name isn't even on the birth certificate. She's had contact with him asking him to voluntarily give up his rights to the child. He's agreed, but we're not sure how sincere he is about it. We're in Texas, and he's from Texas but is currently living in California.

Anyway, my question is...when should she send him the forms to voluntarily terminate his rights? Should we wait until after we're married? Or can she send them now and get the termination to make the adoption process easier later? If he signs a Waiver of Interest, do we have a specific window of time to go through the adoption process, or does that for all intent and purposes waive his rights forever? Any information would be great, we're just trying to get a handle on the best way to go about this. Do we need to hire a lawyer to send him a Waiver of Interest? Thanks in advance.

You should wait until you are married to file the petition for adoption. You can serve him with the papers and termination of parental rights papers, but I suggest that it be handled by a professional in CA to ensure that he understands this and is making a willing and voluntary choice and that decision is made on his won.

How do we get a professional in CA to handle it?

How do we get a professional in CA to handle it?

If you know someone who has recently adopted or gone through a messy child custody battle find out which attorney they used.

Otherwise, call around to attorneys specializing in Family Law.