cindyin214
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I will try to be brief with the back story. I married my husband in 2000. He had "joint legal custody" of his then 4 year old daughter, but she lived with us full time, and saw biomom very sporadically. She paid child support and maintained health insurance per the decree. In 2003, due to the habitual instability of biomom, we offered to allow her to terminate rights and child support to allow me to adopt. She jumped at the opportunity and so that all went off without a hitch.
Over the 10 years since, we have still allowed our daughter to have occasional contact with biomom. (they would see each other once or twice every year or two, but biomom is unstable. She has 2 other children with 2 other fathers that she also is not raising herself)
On Monday, our daughter turned 18. Biomom contacted her through Facebook, and within 5 seconds, the choice was made for her to go live with biomom. My husband agreed to allow this, so as of Tuesday at 5pm, our daughter is gone. (the reasons we let her go are numerous and complicated- we have had years of behavioral issues with our daughter- even spending 9 months in a facility for troubled teens. She would have made this happen with or without our consent, and at 18, we felt we really had no rights to stop her, *legally*.)
OK- so here's the question. She IS 18, but not yet finished with high school. The original decree had biomom paying child support until age 18 or upon completion of high school, but of course that all changed with the termination/adoption. IF she had not terminated rights, at this point, the decree could be modified to now have my husband paying child support until she finishes high school. (which she is only a junior- we had to hold her back a year in 6th grade) Since biomom legally, technically is "no longer mom", and daughter is legally an adult, would biomom have any course of action to take us to court to modify anything, become a legal guardian or something, and request support?
Thanks for any insight!
I will try to be brief with the back story. I married my husband in 2000. He had "joint legal custody" of his then 4 year old daughter, but she lived with us full time, and saw biomom very sporadically. She paid child support and maintained health insurance per the decree. In 2003, due to the habitual instability of biomom, we offered to allow her to terminate rights and child support to allow me to adopt. She jumped at the opportunity and so that all went off without a hitch.
Over the 10 years since, we have still allowed our daughter to have occasional contact with biomom. (they would see each other once or twice every year or two, but biomom is unstable. She has 2 other children with 2 other fathers that she also is not raising herself)
On Monday, our daughter turned 18. Biomom contacted her through Facebook, and within 5 seconds, the choice was made for her to go live with biomom. My husband agreed to allow this, so as of Tuesday at 5pm, our daughter is gone. (the reasons we let her go are numerous and complicated- we have had years of behavioral issues with our daughter- even spending 9 months in a facility for troubled teens. She would have made this happen with or without our consent, and at 18, we felt we really had no rights to stop her, *legally*.)
OK- so here's the question. She IS 18, but not yet finished with high school. The original decree had biomom paying child support until age 18 or upon completion of high school, but of course that all changed with the termination/adoption. IF she had not terminated rights, at this point, the decree could be modified to now have my husband paying child support until she finishes high school. (which she is only a junior- we had to hold her back a year in 6th grade) Since biomom legally, technically is "no longer mom", and daughter is legally an adult, would biomom have any course of action to take us to court to modify anything, become a legal guardian or something, and request support?
Thanks for any insight!
