My husband adopting my son-need help

Hi. This is my first post on LIF. I have recently married the love of my life. I have a 8 year old son from a previous relationship. My husband wants to adopt my son but i have no idea where to start. I called few attorneys but i have gotten so many different answers...i just don't know what to do. My ex has been in jail for the past 4 years...has not seen my son in about 6 years. If anyone could help me out...maybe an attorney name or any kind of info i would really appreciate it. Thank you. I don't want to post my name cause of lurkers.

Re: My husband adopting my son-need help

You need a few people to help you with this. You will need a family lawyer that has experience in adoption and you will need a social worker who will prepare all of your documents and reports that are submitted to Court.
You will also have to deal with the fact that your X (jail or not) has not signed away his parental rights. Have you spoken to him about this? it is not easy to force your X to give up his parental rights. I know someone in my family did this by allowing her X not to have to pay back all of the owed child support and , of course, he would not have any further child support obligations. That is the only way the bio-father gave up all rights...basically he would not have to pay $ anymore.
I found this...maybe this can help
Lawyer Info

Re: My husband adopting my son-need help

I went through a step-parent adoption for my son 7-8 years ago..... the "biological" parent must give up all parental rights.. however you can go through abandonment hearings if they haven't had contact in 6 months (I think... I'm not positive though) .. I didn't have to go through that because my Ex agreed to give up rights.... If you go to the family court and tell them you need a step parent adoption packet, they will give you all the paperwork... I did everything without the help of a lawyer. It is a BIG packet and you have to go through fingerprinting, a social worker has to come and observe your family, etc. but it is totally doable on your own without a lawyer. Good luck!