When you are dealing with an unfit parent, who is unwilling to sign over his or her rights to the child to whom you wish to complete a stepparent adoption with, it can be a very frustrating, and sometimes heartbreaking experience. Sending a child into a dangerous, and or unhealthy environment, sometimes as the child cries and pleads not to go, can all but break a parent’s heart to pieces, not to mention make the parent feel powerless to help the child, as well as to control the situation.

But with all of the technological advances of today, it is getting easier and easier to obtain the evidence that you need in order to prove that a parent is unfit. If the other parent is living is squalor conditions, try to obtain pictures of the house, both inside and out. With many of today’s cell phones having a built in camera, this can be done very discretely with a little bit of practice.

Make sure that you are familiar with your phone, and how the camera function works. Practice several times, until you are comfortable with your performance, before actually going to the other parent’s home to obtain photos. You should also practice taking pictures with the camera phone from your waist area, so that it is not obvious to anyone else, that you are taking snapshots. This is especially important if the other parent that you are dealing with is an unstable, or violent one. If your camera phone has a time and date stamp option, make sure that that function is on, prior to arriving at the home.

What you want to pay attention to, and try to get pictures of, would be anything that would be unhealthy, or dangerous to the child. Weeks of dirty dishes piled on the sink and counter, or weeks and months of dirty clothes, or trash piled around the house. Any sort of bug infestation in the house, the condition of the bathroom toilet, as well as where the child bathes, should also be documented with the camera phone. Look for holes in the ceiling, walls, or even floors. If there are animals in the house that are not being well taken care of, then their will be soil marks on the carpet, as well as “fresh evidence” laying about, which should definitely be documented as well.

The conditions of the outside of the house can be used as evidence as well if they are dangerous or unhealthy to the child. Boarded up windows, large piles of junk, anything old and rusty that the child could get hurt on. Missing floorboards on decks, broken glass laying about, shingles missing from the roof, it is important to look everywhere and collect as much evidence as you can.

It is also extremely important to document, photograph and report any time your child comes back from the other parent’s house with injuries. Make sure that the time and date stamp function is on whatever camera you are using. It is wise to keep an instant camera handy to snap pictures of the child with as well. That way if anyone were to argue that the digital photos had been touched up in anyway, you would still have the pictures from the instant film camera to back you up. If you have a trusted neighbor, have him or her come over and see the injuries on the child, as soon as the child arrives home, so that you also have a witness who can testify on your behalf that he or she saw the condition that the child was in upon arriving home.

By using the technology of today to assist you, and building a good support system for yourself as well as your family, the fight for a stepparent adoption against an unfit parent can be won!