When parents are faced with having to search for the non-custodial parent of their child, they can often become overwhelmed with the daunting task of trying to find a needle in a haystack in order to complete a stepparent adoption for their child. While searching for a birth parent is by no means an easy task, there are many tools available in this day and age to make searching a little bit easier than it used to be.

Social networking sites are a relatively new way for people to get in touch, and keep in touch with a wide variety of people, and can be useful when you are trying to locate someone. The sites usually require you to register with them and create an account, however their services are completely free and will cost you nothing more than the time that it takes you to fill out the online registration form(s.) Two of the most popular social networking sites are facebook.com, and myspace.com, with myspace being the more popular and hip site. Facebook is geared towards a slightly older demographic than myspace, and tends to attract the more reserved personality types.

Louder personalities, those who are more outgoing and a little more 'out there' tend to gravitate towards myspace and it's many features. Both of these sites make good starting points for a search, especially when you do not have a lot of information to start with. The sites will allow you to search through their members by name, so even if that is all that you have to start with, all hope is not lost. Even if you cannot find the birth parent, you can search for their friends, and relatives as well. Many people can become so focused on finding the one individual that they forget to look for others who may already know the whereabouts of the person whom is being sought out.

Other social networking sites include, but most definitely are by no means limited to; xanga.com, photobucket.com, linkedin.com, friendwise.com, classmates.com, MSN Groups, Yahoo Groups, and MSN Spaces.

If you have searched and searched and have still come up with nothing, you can petition the courts to allow you to publish a public notice in the newspaper. When petitioning the courts for a public notice you must prove to the courts that you have done your best to search for the birth parent and have come up empty handed at every attempt. If you are successful in your petition, a notice explaining your intent for a stepparent adoption will be published in the paper, in the hopes that the birth parent will see it and in turn, contact the courts. If no contact is made within the allotted time, the adoption proceedings will continue forward.

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