Due diligence

Originally Posted By NicoleHello from California,My husband is in the process of adopting my son. We are doing this on our own. The judge postponed the court date and is asking for due diligence. (I guess he wants to make sure that my son's natural father has plenty of oppurtunity to know about the adoption.) We were told by the courts that they cannot advise us, and can only get limited info from social services. Thet told us that due diligence was to run an announcement in the local paper about the intent to adopt, and to search DMV records for the natural father. Our question is for how long to run this announcement, is there a format for this kind of thing, and how to get the DMV to do a search on him? We have already notified the mother and brother of my son's natural father, they do not know his whereabouts to give him papers about the intent to adopt, and searched the jails. My son's natural father has never been involved or tried to be, never paid child support in 10 years. Does anybody have any experience in this area? We are trying to avoid using a lawyer, as the costs would be a hardship on us. We are currently paying the fees to adopt on a monthly basis. Thank you for any help here.