Successfully Petitioned Stepfather’s Adoption of Stepkids

Colorado makes every effort to encourage parents who have separated or divorced to explore co-parenting arrangement possibilities. In child custody matters, judges are legally obligated to rule in the child’s best interest. 

However, not every parent is up for the responsibility. Judges tend to view parents who neglect or fail to provide their children with necessary support as having abandoned the child. The court can terminate parental rights if the abandoning parent has been absent without contact for more than six months. 

Fortunately, there are people out there who are willing to step in to care for children whose parents have abandoned them. In this case, our client – an active-duty servicemember – stepped up to adopt his wife’s children after helping to raise them. 

Our client has been a parental figure to these children for most of their lives. In contrast, their biological father was largely absent. The children hadn’t seen him in more than a decade. 

After months went by without contact from the biological father, the children’s mother and her husband began to explore stepparent adoption. 

In Colorado, the process of adopting a child is meticulous. It requires a knowledgeable family law attorney to file a petition that includes the written consent of the parent whose rights are being terminated. However, a judge may not require the biological parent’s permission if the parent has abandoned the child or failed to provide reasonable support for a year or more. 

In addition to the paperwork, our client underwent a comprehensive state-administered background check to demonstrate to the court that he was fit to raise his stepchildren. Any criminal history or suspicious convictions would have automatically stopped the process from moving forward.

Following a successful background check, our attorneys represented the client in a formal hearing where he made his case to formally adopt his stepkids. We also supplied the court with evidence, including the children’s report cards and awards they’ve garnered due, in part, to our client’s unwavering support. 

Despite notifying the biological father about his legal rights, he chose not to participate in the hearing and subsequently forfeited his parental rights. 

In addition to the biological father’s disinterest in the judicial process, the court found that the adoption was in the best interests of the children and delivered an astounding win for our client. 

Now, he can continue raising the children to be happy and healthy with a newfound sense of legitimacy.