Our Journey

Hello All, Here is our adoption story. To get you started, here are a couple links to the adoption forums concerning a lot of background information and a multitude of questions. [URL=http://forums.adoption.com/showthread.php?t=157070]Here[/URL], [URL=http://forums.adoption.com/showthread.php?t=187177]here[/URL], [URL=http://forums.adoption.com/showthread.php?t=193827]here[/URL] and [URL=http://forums.adoption.com/showthread.php?t=196594]here[/URL] Here is the background to our story: My wife moved to California from Ohio early Spring 2001. The biological father(bf) would occasionally call the children. Then the phone calls stopped in Spring 2002. My wife and I started dating in the Fall 2001. My wife and the bf entered into a Joint legal custody agreement with my wife having the children during the school year and the bf allotted to have the children in the summer. They entered into this agreement in Ohio. We were married in the Spring of 2003. Still there had been no contact. In the Summer 2004, we received a call from the bf's girlfriend. We updated them to our new address and phone number. Still no contact. In October we filled for adoption. The bf refused to give up his parental rights. The report came back from the Social Worker that the adoption was recommended, permitting the bf's rights be terminated. We then submitted to the courts a petition terminating the bf's parental rights using CA Family Code 7822. On our first hearing the bf showed up, he protested. He also brought up the fact that Ohio should have jurisdiction, not California. He eventually filed a motion attempting to dismiss and motion to transfer the case to Ohio. I filed a responsive declaration stating that the case should be out here because the children had a significant connection to this state. The judge overrulled the motion to dismiss and motion to transfer and stated that the children do have a significant connection to California and that California should have jurisdiction permitting that the Ohio judge agreed. The bf had filed a motion for citation of contempt against my wife in Ohio for "moving out of state without his knowledge and denying visitation". Once the hearing was all said and done the Ohio judge found her not guilty of those allegations and permitted California and Ohio shall share jurisdiction. I then submitted a legal brief, brief..bah it was about 50 pages, to the court stating our position to the court and showing all evidence. After a couple miscommunications with the court we finally got our hearing set. At the hearing my wife testified, the bf's now fiance testified and after some more evidence was presented and the judge took a short recess, the judge came back and declared that the bf did in fact abandon the children, and that his parental rights are to be terminated. We have our adoption hearing soon and can't wait. This whole proceedure, from the time we filed, until the adoption paperwork gets signed will be just over a year. A very long, hard year. Thanks to everybody for their support.