Husband wants to adopt step son in NM

Not sure about NM. I believe in TX it is 12yrs old. I think most states are going to be in the neighborhood of 10-12 yrs old. In fact, I believe in TX at that age the child is actually required to consent to the adoption.

Thank you for the info! :)

If the biological father agrees to the adoption, then your son will not have to speak to the judge at all. Consent of the non-custodial parent must be given for a stepparent adoption to occur. If he will not consent to the adoption, then you must prove him unfit as a father which is a long and costly process, both emotionally as well as financially. Open adoption arrangements can be worked out. Before the adoption takes place both sides sit down and agree to the amount of contact and what type of contact will happen. Letters and pictures every month, three months, or year? Day visits, overnight visits, and how often... These are things that you really need to think long and hard about before agreeing to. Think about what you can seriously live with, and keep up with. Many people want to agree to just about anything in order to get the adoption through, only to realize that they bit off more than they could chew when it comes to the open adoption arrangement that they made. [url=http://stepparent.adoptionblogs.com]Stepparent Adoption Blog[/url]

How does open adoption work for step-parent adoptions? I'm not sure how that would be possible? By definition you must terminate a biological parents rights and the law [TX] says you must not have an affidavit to terminate that contains language allowing for post-termination contact as a condition of the termination.Hmm, I guess open adoptions are done all the time but I have no clue how that works. It seems odd. If termination must happen for at least one parent and they longer have any right to the child how can you have a condition to allow them visitation? I know these are done it just seems strange. Curious myself just for curiosity sake.

SOme people believe that it is better for the child when they have an established relationship with a parent, to not completely cut contact between the two. Not every open adoption includes contact between parent and child. Many only include contact through letters and pictures sent to the relinquishing parent a set amount of times per year. This allows the parent to watch the child grow up and know what the child is doing, instead of wondering everyday how the child is doing. While some states will not enforce open adoption arrangements, there are judges who will strongly suggest that some contact between the parent and child should continue even though the adoption will be finalized. This is to prevent the child from experiencing abandonment issues, and is only an option when the non-custodial parent is in no way a threat or a harm to the child and has an established relationship with the child. Most open adoptions are agreed upon by both parties prior to the adoption taking place, very rarely is it the judge that decides to make the stepparent adoption open. [url=http://stepparent.adoptionblogs.com]Stepparent Adoption Blog[/url]