We are pursuing termination of my daughters' biological father's rights and pursuing adoption for my now husband for the girls. Their biological father meets multiple requirements of Kansas 38-1583 (termination of parental rights, deeming unfit parent). He has made no attempt to contact them in 7 years, and our youngest does not even remember him (she was a baby). He is a felon and has a known drug history, and also domestic violence. The court is now having us pay for an attorney to represent him since he is not able to be located and we served by publication. We thought this would go quicker since he has been an absent father and owes over $10k in child support. This is the 2nd set of children he abandoned (he lost custody of the first 2 for the same reason). I have sole legal and residential custody. My husband has been raising them for 6 years, and this is their father. He abandoned them over 7 years ago, why does he need an attorney to represent him? Our attorney says it's not a bad sign, and that it does mean the decision should have almost zero chance of being overturned. We had just hoped with all of the details, this would not be needed. Our girls deserve so much better, and I don't want this to go the wrong way. So many children have no father, or a deadbeat father much to the dismay of the courts, and when there is a good father in the picture, this happens?
