Legal Guardianship of a Stepchild, One Parent is Deceased

[nekochan]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Alabama.

Hi. My stepdaughter's mother died recently, and she is now in our custody. I would like to be able to take her to the doctor and get her registered for school and other things that as of right now, he can only do since he's the legal parent. My main concern is that if anything happened to my husband, I want to retain custody of her. Adoption was my first choice, but we were informed that I adopt her, we would lose her mother's ssi death benefits. We don't make that much money at our jobs and the money is crucial for us to take care of her the best that we can. He is looking for a better job since his business is going under soon, and hopefully one day we won't even need the money. I have every intention of legally adopting her when money isn't so tight, but right now we can't afford to go without it.

Is it possible for me to get some kind of legal guardianship of her that won't interfere with her benefits?

[Mr. Knowitall]

What do you mean when you talk about, "SSI death benefits"? Are you in fact talking about SSD?