we proved abandonment

My husband and i have been married for 7 years, i have two daughters with my previous husband. The bio dad has not seen nor paid any child support in over 3 years..He moved to another state and has not even tryed to call or write at all in 3 years.My husband and i decided it would be best if he adopted my girls since they have allways called him dad since they were 2 years old. They are now 13, 11..We filed the adoption papers for him to terminate his rights and of corse he decided to fight it and not give his consent. We went to court 3 times and was heard by 3 different judges..my girls even told my ex that they wanted theyre stepdad to be theyre real father, he told me he would fight it all the way. We went by civil code 8604.B..if you can prove he has not seen nor paid child support in a year you do=not need the bio-fathers consent for adoption..We went to court on December 8th and we were told by the judge that we proved the bio-dad abandoned his children and we were given the OK to go foward with the adoption, i just want to say it is so easy once you get in court and prove that these men are dead beats, the judge i think favors the adopting parents..Another thing..your gonna laugh at this..My ex-husbands excuse for not seeing my children or paying support was because and i quote.."Your honor i had to be a house wife for my girlfriend, i had to take care of her son while she worked"... you should have seen the look on the Judges face when he said that, it was Priceless..So now all we have to do is make another court date for the adoption ceremony, the judge does something nice for the children, we will be one happy whole family after this..i couldnt believe how easy it was..i just wanted to share my story with you all and hopefully it will be easy for all of you out there trying.. Good Luck...The Davis Family