signed consent, can he change his mind?

July 31, 2006

If the bio dad signed his consent for the step parent adoption can he then contest the adoption when it goes to court? The 60 day time frame is up. I found that my ex may have come into some money. Child support (I feel) was the motivating factor for him agreeing to the step parent adoption. Anyone have a bio parent change their mind last minute?

He hasn't paid support for over a year and has never gone out of his way to see her in the past 7 years. I do faciliate visits once a year, at my expense and will do so this year because I feel it is important for my dd.

jsimon

August 3, 2006

I do not know this for a fact but I do not think he should be able to contest it. Even if he did it sounds like you have a good case for abandonment except for the fact that it sounds like he has seen her in the past year and for abandonment to be enacted both child support and not seeing the child have to be true. In my case it was not considered abandonment because he was incarcerated and could not pay child support but he did write letters so that eliminates abandonment.

Do you know for a fact that he is going to contest it or are you just assuming since he may have money now? If he signed the consent form maybe money had nothing to do with it. He may just want to move on with his life and really not want anything to do with his DD. Sad but possible. You did say he has not made any real effort to see her on his own.

Good luck with your case and keep us posted.

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Forever_family

August 4, 2006

THis has been a long itime coming. We had offered for a step parent adoption because our daughter had asked for it. He basically said over his dead body and then made our lives as difficult as possible. He has always fought for visitation but has never paid to for it himself. He has taken us to court several times in the past. He was abusive/controlling during our marraige towards me. I have felt that he unconciously/conciously used our daughter to try and hurt me.

Anyway to make a long story short two days after his child support was increased and he was back ordered several thousands of dollars he emailed us letting us know he was ready for the step-parent adoption.

I've been polite sinc then. He has never been "nice" to me in any corospondance but since he agreed to the adoption its like all the control has been taken away so he is for the FIRST time resonable! Its made such a positive difference in his relationship with our dd. I faciliate visits (very limited-I still protect my dd's needs FIRST) because I do feel it is important that he be part of our daughters life, this is for her not for him. Anyway I dont' know if he will contest it or not. I doubt it. But on the odd chance that he will I now think we will be okay. I flipped out a little when I learned he may be coming into money. Its been such an ideal sitaution for the first time, I panicked at the thought of gong back.

He signed the consent and hasn't asked us anything since about the adoption. We have gone on like normal but without extended visits. He is still in contact and we will keep it that way.

I contacted our attorney who explained that if he does get a large sum of money (I'm positive he has/or is) and he should decide to contest then we would just hit him with another child support review and get 20% of the sum he will recieve pre-tax. Leaving him with only 50% of the money he will be getting. I know him and know that will be it for him. So not so worried anymore. He is still part of her life. I think we all agree it was a negative experience (visitation) and dealing with each other and none of us want to go back, especially our dd.