You should talk to a lawyer.

I was afraid so

In your courthouse there may be someone who can help you for free or low cost. At least s/he could point you towards the right information!

On another note, that is so sweet that he wants to adopt her

he's pretty much been her father for 3 plus years now. I found her real father on myspace the other day, and wrote him a note and asked for his info so i could get it started, and he didn't even want to try and say he wanted to be apart of her life. he just said oh well tell her i love her.........LOL what a pecker

Tell her I love her? Liar.

I know, my dad ALWAYS told me he loved me, and he's saw me probably 5 times in my whole life. Sick.

My brother adopted his wife daughter after they we married, She had to have the real father sign his rights over and made sure to get his family medical history in case anything down the road would come up you would know. I hope this helped. I don't think she had a lawyer because he just signed. He didn't put up a fight for her. I think the longest part was changing her last name

ya let me tell her some stranger said love ya thats my dad too. only worse.

You could probably just call the court house and ask, if my new husband wants to formally adopt my other daughter and her real father is not on her birth certificate what do I ned to do? they should be able to tell you something.

My friends husband wants to formally adopt her oldest but he couldnt til she turned 12 because her real father (whos about as great a dad as my thumb) wont sign over his rights. But i guess now that shes 12 she can decide to change her last name or something like that.