If you or someone you know is a step parent you may or may not know that they can legally adopt the child of their spouse and give them their name. Some people need to do this so that the child will not feel like an outsider, but many times stepparent adoptions do not need to take place unless the child really wants them to.
It is important if a stepparent wants to adopt his or her stepchild that they get the consent of the other biological parent before doing so. Stepparent adoptions cannot take place unless everyone is in agreement. It may be difficult to get the consent of the biological parent of the child to allow a stepparent adoption to take place because in order to allow this they will have to give up their rights to their own child. This would also include giving up any rights the biological parent has for seeing their own child as well as giving up their rights to making any decisions as far as that child is concerned such as medical care or education. Most of the time unless a parent is just a deadbeat, they are not going to agree to a stepparent adoption.
There are a few reasons why a parent would agree to a stepparent adoption of their child such as if they have financially difficulty paying child support for the child or they believe that the adoption would be in the best interested for their child. Once the parental rights are terminated by the step parent adoption, the biological parent will no longer continue to be responsible for paying child support for the child.
You need to think about not only the paperwork that is involved with completing a stepparent adoption, but also the emotional issues it may cause for the child and the biological parent. This can be an extremely emotional thing for anyone to have to go through, so unless the biological parent is no longer alive, I would think long and hard before doing something like this.
If the biological parent has abandoned the child however, stepparent adoption may be the way to go. Abandonment can be defined as either the biological parent not having any contact with his child for a period of a year or him or her not paying child support for the child. In cases such as these it may be quite easy for a step parent to adopt the step child.
In most states it is easier to adopt your step child than it is to adopt a child that has never lived in your home before. This is because a lot of paperwork can be left out of stepparent adoptions.
Adoptions in Norman – Deaconess Pregnancy and Adoption Services can help with all forms of adoptions in Norman. Learn more about adoption at Deaconess Pregnancy & Adoption.