Child Adoption-Parental rights termination

[marymoo59]

Mississippi

Here is the situation: My son married a woman with 2 children by 2 different fathers. The oldest's has never been in the picture and no one knows where he is. No problem. The youngest's father has not paid any support in over a year, has not had any contact with her in over 2 years and has moved.

Our daughter-in-law married the youngest's father. They divorced when the youngest was about 1 year old. They lived, married, divorced and custody was awarded to her in the state of Arizona.

My son is adopting both of the children. They went to an attorney and gave him what information they had on the 2 fathers. The oldest's hasn't been found. The youngest's papers were sent to the last known address which is the grandfather's address.

The attorney has posted notices in the local papers here in Mississippi. I do not understand this as both of the fathers were from Arizona, both children were born in Arizona, both have friends in Arizona that could let them know what is going on. Why do these notices not have to be done in Arizona also?

Also, the daughter-in-law is not being truthful in not knowing where the father is since she showed me the ex's MySpace page. It is current. He is married now with 2 children living in Illinois so of course he's not going to see the posts in the papers. As far as I know he doesn't know she has remarried or is living in MS. The last time he called he called her cell phone and when she moved from AZ he only knew she was moving back closer to family in Louisiana.

Their court date is the end of October. Unless he or his attorney contacts or shows up his rights will be terminated that day and the adoption will proceed.

If I contact him or their attorney I will be the bad person. I just don't like that all the truth hasn't come out. If he's as bad as he's been made out to be no he doesn't deserve any contact with my granddaughter but I just feel that this will come back to bite my son's butt when this 5 year old is a teenager and asks questions.

Any suggestions or legal help?

It's not your business. Stay out of it.

The father to this child, from the content of your post, conveys that he has been well aware of the child's existence for the past 2 years. That he's gone on, gotten married, had two more children, and continues to deny his blood relation to the child is a very strong indicator he will not care that his rights have been severed.

Leave it alone. This child will be better off getting a father who actually loves him and supports him. His bio dad is obviously a loser.

[marymoo59]

Another thing that bothers me is that he has contacted via Facebook and Myspace the daughter-in-law's best friend (whom she talks to everyday) and she lied and said she doesn't know where she is.