Okay, here's my situation. My ex-husband wasn't around much during my pregnancy and left for good when my daughter was 2 months old. From the time she was 2 months until she was 6 months, he only saw her about 3 times. He has not seen her since. He has never paid any child support and my daughter is not mentioned in our divorce papers because we divorced the year before she was born. His name is, however, listed on her birth certificate. (The nurse who did the paper work assumed since our last names were the same and he was present at the birth, that we were married and listed him without asking me or him first.)
When my daughter was 10 1/2 months old, I got married. My husband is in the United States Air Force and is stationed in Germany. In order to obtain a passport for her (without my ex's signature) so we could move over here, I had to have a notorized statement prepared saying that I didn't know where her father was and he hadn't had contact with her in months.
We have been here in Germany with my husband for a year now and my daughter (who is now 2) knows him as her daddy. They are extremely close and he has been her sole financial provider for since she was 6 months old. We have still had no contact with her father. He has made no effort to contact us (my home phone in the states is still connected and all of my family still have numbers he knew). My husband would love to adopt her so we can legally change her name.
According to the research I have done on Kentucky state law, we can have his rights revoked due to abandonment and Disintegration of Parent-Child Relationship. Yet I have many questions.......
Do I use legal counsel here on base in Germany? or do I have to wait until we go home? (which will never be for more than a few weeks at a time).
How is my ex going to be served to be in court if I don't even know how to reach him? (all I know is he is somewhere in Kentucky, because he was arrested in a drug bust there last month).
Do we start by trying to begin stepparent adoption proceedings or by trying to have his rights revoked?
I'm lost. I'm sorry this has been so long, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.
When my daughter was 10 1/2 months old, I got married. My husband is in the United States Air Force and is stationed in Germany. In order to obtain a passport for her (without my ex's signature) so we could move over here, I had to have a notorized statement prepared saying that I didn't know where her father was and he hadn't had contact with her in months.
We have been here in Germany with my husband for a year now and my daughter (who is now 2) knows him as her daddy. They are extremely close and he has been her sole financial provider for since she was 6 months old. We have still had no contact with her father. He has made no effort to contact us (my home phone in the states is still connected and all of my family still have numbers he knew). My husband would love to adopt her so we can legally change her name.
According to the research I have done on Kentucky state law, we can have his rights revoked due to abandonment and Disintegration of Parent-Child Relationship. Yet I have many questions.......
Do I use legal counsel here on base in Germany? or do I have to wait until we go home? (which will never be for more than a few weeks at a time).
How is my ex going to be served to be in court if I don't even know how to reach him? (all I know is he is somewhere in Kentucky, because he was arrested in a drug bust there last month).
Do we start by trying to begin stepparent adoption proceedings or by trying to have his rights revoked?
I'm lost. I'm sorry this has been so long, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.
