Adopting your stepchild can strengthen family bonds, simplify inheritance and medical decision making, and provide a sense of security for parent and child. Sometimes there are obstacles to stepparent adoption, though. An unwilling biological parent who contests the adoption, a resistant teen who isn’t ready to be adopted, or a young family’s financial concerns can cause the stepparent adoption process to be put off to a future that never seems to come. But things can change. There may come a time when that adoption is exactly what all family members want. If the stepchild is 18 or over, is it too late? In fact, adopting your adult stepchild may be the best possible move.
Relationship with the biological parent
When the biological parents divorced, the noncustodial parent may still have been a big part of the child’s life. As time passes, that bond may loosen. If the noncustodial parent remarries and has children with the new spouse, the connection may even end. A bio parent who was not willing to allow the adoption when the child was young may be more willing later in life.
Or the connection may be on the side of the child. The child may continue to hope that the bio parent will remain close, and worry that this will be impossible if the stepparent adopts him or her. The connection with the father may feel like an important part of the child’s identity at some points in time, but not at a later time.
If the biological parent has no contact and provides no support for a year, Arkansas law allows termination of parental rights. Otherwise, the noncustodial biological parent must consent to the stepparent adoption.
The child’s consent
In Arkansas, a child 10 or over must consent to his or her own adoption. Sometimes children hesitate or resist adoption. They may feel insecure about the relationship or resistant to the idea of being adopted. They may have feelings of anger or resentment relating to their parents’ divorce, or bad experiences with previous stepparents. These feelings can change.
As the child matures, he or she may grow to love the stepparent and want adoption. A change of heart is not too late just because they reach the age of 18.
Legal rights
As people get older, the legal rights between parent and child can have greater importance. If the custodial biological parent were to die, the surviving stepparent spouse can maintain the legal rights of a parent if there has been an adoption. If medical decisions need to be made for an ailing parent, the stepchild may not have the legal right to make those decisions without an adoption. Questions of inheritance can be more complicated without the legal connection.
There are ways around these complex issues, but formalizing the relationship by adopting your adult stepchild makes these and similar situations simpler to handle. Since problems of this kind are often unforeseen and highly emotional, simplifying the legal position beforehand is a smart move. Heimer Law can help.
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