Hi,
I’m exploring the possibility of step parent adoption and have very specific circumstances. I don’t know if anyone can help.
Here’s an overview of my circumstances;
My daughter was born in December 2019. Her biological father walked out as soon as her mum found out she was pregnant and hasn’t had any contact with her since then apart from a few WhatsApp messages at the time confirming he doesn’t want anything to do with the baby.
I started a relationship with my daughter’s mum when she was five months pregnant and moved in with her a few weeks before the birth. I was there for my daughter when she was born, but because we wanted to keep everything above board, I’m not named on her birth certificate and she uses her mums surname.
Me and her mum separated in January 2022 and since then I’ve acted as a non residential parent. She stays with me most weekends and I pay child maintenance through a private arrangement.
I’ve since met my current partner and we’re getting married later this year. As we’re now setting down, me, my partner, my ex and her new partner have all discussed the possibility of me formally adopting my daughter to regularise our status as a family. There’s two reasons why we think it’s a good idea. Firstly so that my daughter can be officially recognised as part of mine and my partners new family and secondly that that we’ll have rights to her if anything ever happened to her mum.
I’ve looked on Gov.uk and it mentions that in order to adopt a step child, you have to have lived with the child for at least 6 months. It doesn’t state whether this means you’ve lived with child for the last 6 months, or for 6 months at some point during the child’s lifetime.
I’m also unsure as to whether the fact that I’ve been an NRP for 3 years now would be relevant in adopting my daughter. Is the family relationship we’ve had since separating from her mum something that a family judge will take into consideration?
Does anyone who’s knowledgable about family law have an idea on whether step parent adoption is something that would be available to us in these circumstances?
We understand that we will need to track down my daughter’s biological father and gain his consent. But all the adults involved in actually raising my daughter agree that adoption is something we should look into and that it would be the best option if it’s legally possible. All it would do is formally recognise a family relationship that already exists in practice.