Abandonment, Parental Rights Termination, Step-Parent Adoption

**AlynRobertson** · 08-11-2011, 08:44 AM

My question involves adoption law for the State of: Florida

I was curious as how to go about terminating the parental rights of my ex-husband. I left him in Sept. of '08. We divorced in Oct. of '10 In the time in between I had an injunction placed against him, which he violated often enough to be convicted of aggravated stalking charges, serving one year of jail time, plus two years probation (was released shortly before divorce hearing in Sept. '09). A child support order was issued as part of the divorce. Upon his release he was granted supervised visitation through a court program. He lost visitation privileges in March '11. He has never paid support. He had the opportunity to petition the court for visitation again in April, but chose not to. He has recently landed himself back in jail for VOP a few days ago, where he will remain until Sept. '12. With all the information about, am I able to prove abandonment based on this, to have his rights terminated? Do my children have to be adopted by my current husband at the time of termination? What would a step-parent adoption cost? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**Dogmatique** · 08-11-2011, 09:42 AM

Why did he lose visitation?

There is a reason I'm asking.

**AlynRobertson** · 08-11-2011, 12:41 PM

The program terminated his visitation for 2 "no call, no show"s along with noncompliance with program rules (talking to the kids about things that were not allowed by the program, such as prying for information and false promises).

**reale** · 08-11-2011, 01:51 PM

I have no real answers for you but I wish you luck. I am in a very similar situation with my boys and my ex although we were never married. I am curious of the answer you'll get.

**Dogmatique** · 08-11-2011, 02:39 PM

Quoting AlynRobertson

The program terminated his visitation for 2 "no call, no show"s along with noncompliance with program rules (talking to the kids about things that were not allowed by the program, such as prying for information and false promises).

Abandonment is not likely to be an option for you. Instead, if Dad is willing, why not go ahead with the stepparent adoption? Have a chat with a local adoption attorney - you'll need one anyway.