My wife and I will have been together for 8 years in June, married for the last 5. Her son was 1 when we met, and he’s grown up calling me Dad. I love the hell out of him, and I think of him as mine.
His sperm donor (I refuse to call him his father) was a piece of shit who beat my son’s mother while she was pregnant with him. When my son was born, the asshole held him a little bit, but that was it. My wife separated from him, and he hasn’t seen his son since. He agreed to give over full custody in return for only paying $300 a month in child support. My son has never seen even a picture of him since he was an infant.
If we could, we would just contact him to see if we could work with him for me to adopt. However, we have no idea where he is. He also has a very common Hispanic first and last name, almost the equivalent of John Smith.
We think we might have some leverage over him with child support; he hasn’t paid it for at least 5-6 years now. We think we can offer to waive what he owes in child support if he signs over paternity for good.
However, we have no idea where to start, or if we can actually make that offer, or even what type of lawyer we should contact. I’m just looking for any suggestions on how we should proceed.