My husband wants to adopt my daughter we have been together for 9 years and married 4 years. Her bio doesn't even know that she exsit. i don't know where he is at. A few years ago about7 I went to the Texas Attorney General and filed for cs but they drop my case because they couldn't find him based on everything I knew about him I haven't found anything on him now. My husband also has her on his insurance and even claims her on his income taxes because I am a stay at home mom.My question is can my husband adpot my daughter without her bio signing over his rights because I don't know where he is. :confused:

No. You must petition the court and prove that you have made a reasonable effort to locate him. Reasonable efforts include sending letters, hiring a private detective, running ads in a paper nationally, etc. Then, his rights could be terminated.

No. You must petition the court and prove that you have made a reasonable effort to locate him. Reasonable efforts include sending letters, hiring a private detective, running ads in a paper nationally, etc. Then, his rights could be terminated.

While that's true in some states, Texas isn't quite as strict. Since it's been a few years since you've been to the AG for child support, you can refile with them. You can either ask them to try and enforce the CS order or reqest "locate only" services. For a locate only, they will use the resourses available to them, both state and federal, to track him down. If they find him you'll have an address to have him served TPR papers. If not, then you have made a good faith effort to locate and the court will allow notification by publication. You would need to publish in the local paper and the paper closest to his last known address, if it is elsewhere.

Consult a Texas attorney. You likely will do notice by publication, and proceed with the adoption. It does not sound like anything that would prevent an adoption. A good site with lots of adoption information is http://www.adoption.com