Stepparent Adoption

A 44 year old man from Tyler, Texas fired several shots at his ex-wife with a handgun of currently unknown caliber, on Monday afternoon. The two had met each other to exchange custody of the children, meaning that while daddy was firing shots at mommy, they were somewhere nearby...lovely. Thankfully no one was hurt during the incident, and the man fled the scene before police had a chance to arrive. Officers, however, were quickly able to locate the man, at his residence. Police officers surrounded the home, and negotiated briefly with him, before he willingly came out of the house and surrendered himself to the police. The man was charged with aggravated assault of a deadly weapon and arrested. He is currently being held in the… [more]

You know I am not one for resolutions. Sure I think that they are cute to make, and there are those who can stick to the ones that they make, however I am not one of those lucky people who can do such a task. I seem to do better if I label mine as goals, I have a higher success rate of obtaining goals than I do in sticking to resolutions. We were at Walmart this afternoon, so that my adopted stepson could spend one of the gift certificates that he received for Christmas this year, that has been burning a hole in his pocket since it was revealed the morning of the twenty fifth. After looking through the electronics section for what… [more]

This question crosses the mind of every hopeful adoptive stepparent out there, at some point or another in the adoption process. Parents have decided to move forward with the idea of performing a stepparent adoption, but then are completely clueless as to how to get the ball rolling. If you are one of those parents out there scratching your noggin, fear not, we have all been there at some time or another! Court forms are for the most part, found at the courthouse which will be performing the stepparent adoption. Usually the Clerk of Courts, can either point you in the right direction as to where the forms are located, or some may have them readily available and hand them over. If you plan to… [more]

A new year stands before all of us, and I don't know about the rest of you, but the idea of an entire year just waiting to be mapped out, a fresh slate waiting to be filled up with actions and choices, just makes me all a flutter! I love New Year's Eve, the excitement, the small sense of naughtiness that the children feel when they get to stay up late, and the togetherness of friends and family ringing in the New Year with one another. So what will 2008 bring for you? For some this may be the year that you finally stop talking about pursuing a stepparent adoption, and start doing something about it. For other families perhaps 2008 will be the… [more]

Christmas was wonderful this year! While it looked for a time, as though my adopted stepson's adoption issues were going to come out and take a stab at sabotaging Christmas just before the holiday came, as quickly as the behaviors and attitude appeared, they were gone again, and Christmas was uneventful. We had a lovely morning, it took the kids hours to open up all of the gifts that they had waiting for them underneath the tree, and everyone had a glorious day together as a family. My parents came, bright and early and helped us enjoy our morning as a family, and my adopted stepson was quite happy to have his grandparents there to share his day with. There were no tears, there was no… [more]

A Maryland blended family whom has been looking forward to completing a stepparent adoption to legally make nine year old Cheyanne, the daughter of Timothy Webber. Yet while the family was anxiously awaiting to become the legal equivalent of what they felt in their hearts, disaster was looming, and it was thanks to little Cheyanne, that her soon to be adoptive stepfather is still alive today. After spending an evening together in a remote area of town, the two were getting ready to leave the Hunt Club, when Timothy began to have chest pains. He continued on his way home when he realized that he was having a heart attack, and could no longer drive the car. Quick thinking Cheyanne, jumped into her father's lap, and drove

Today was an incredibly stressful, yet positively wonderful day. Absolutely everything that I had planned for today did not go right at all. I had a lot to get done, and very little time to do it in, as once the kids arrived home from school we had to hurry up and get in the car and drive quite a distance, for an extremely important engagement. Only both the kids didn't go to school today, as my little guy got sick again and had to stay home. We were quite worried this morning as to if he would be able to make it to this most special occasion, and what on Earth we were going to do if he was in fact, too sick… [more]

Yesterday, I shared with all of you how my adopted stepson, now in his teen years, had finally been assigned the family tree project in school, as well as my dismay over how and why a teacher would choose the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to assign such a task. I drove up to his school late this morning, just before lunch time, and took a minute to speak with his guidance counselor about family tree projects, and how they can cause some emotional upheaval for children living in any type of non-tradtional family setting. Children of divorce have loss in their family, children whom have experienced the death of a parent, have loss, and children whom have been adopted all have experienced a great loss of family… [more]

It has taken a long time in his school career, halfway through high school, but my adopted stepson has finally been assigned the most dreaded school project of all for adoptees, the family tree. We had thought that we were lucky enough to escape dealing with this particular project, when he had been assigned to make a timeline of his life, during grade school one year. We had wiped our brows in relief, thanking our lucky stars that we had gotten that project instead of having to do the family tree, but alas, it has finally reared its ugly head. We only found out about the project this week, and it was due back in November. I am not sure why the teacher would pick the… [more]

Is the American Family, an endangered species? According to Terry Harris, single father and educator, it is and he would like it added to the endangered species list. He came up with the idea while teaching about the decline of the American Family, and decided to send a letter to several members of Congress in an attempt to get them to pay attention to the decline of society, which he believes stems from the decline of the American Family. Feeling that out of wedlock births are greatly contributing to the breakdown of society, he points out the statistics found in the U.S. Center for Marriage and Family study, which was released back in November of 2005, for children being raised in a one parent, or stepparent home… [more]