Quote Quoting BrickTree79
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Yes. The child is 12. My husband stated he was homeless at the time of the divorce, so I'm not sure when or how he was served or if he was even served. I've never lived in Texas, so I don't know if the respondent gets served there.




My husband left Texas long before we met. He was still homeless when he moved to Missouri, which is where we live. He and his first wife were divorced in Texas, and she has since moved to Florida with her child. The only reason we know about this was because we started getting notices from the state of Florida regarding the child support, which was previously paid to Texas. I really don't know why he didn't dispute paternity at the time of the divorce, but I do know that he was homeless and couldn't afford a lawyer, so he may not have been aware of his options. I cannot speak for his choices for the time before we met and married, but I do know that we haven't been able to afford a lawyer, as he has been attending university, and I have been attending college myself, taking care of my disabled child, and working when I can. We're in a better position to afford a lawyer now, so we've been exploring our options. Even if there's nothing we can do to find out for sure whether or not the child is my husband's biologically, we still need to know which state to contact to modify the order to allow us to get to know the child through visitation.
It is too late now for him to dispute paternity. He should have done that immediately once the divorce was filed. You don't need a lawyer to dispute anything in a divorce. You can conduct a divorce without a lawyer.

And now it's 12 years later he wants to just intrude in this child's life? You said he hasn't had any contact with this kid in 12 years - maybe the kid doesn't even want to see this guy. My brother has been raising his stepson since he was 2 years old. My nephew's sperm donor took off when he was six months old. My nephew is 15 now. One time it came up about the sperm donor and he flat out said he hates the guy and never wants to meet him. He was about 12 or 13 when he said that. I don't blame him. My SIL does get child support from him once in a while. But that's the extent of it.

Your husband can reach out and file for visitation but maybe you guys think about how it might affect this child who is nearly a teenager and has never met your husband and maybe doesn't want to. Maybe he does. But think about the interests of that child because you are all strangers to him.