How do I go about adopting my stepson in the state of Maine?

First thing you need to do is contact an attorney. Many attorneys offer a free initial consultation where they will explain exactly what steps need to be taken in order for you to adopt your step son and of course the cost. An attorney will first try to get the bio dad to sign away his rights willingly but if that cannot be done either because the bio dad doesn't want to or you do not know where the bio dad is then there are grounds that can be used to involuntarily take his rights away such as abandonment which includes not paying child support and not seeing the child, or abuse.

What the court will be looking for in you is that you are willingly to treat him as he were our own, that you will be a positive role model and support him both finiancilly and emotional and that you are willingly to take fully responsibility of him until he becomes an adult, all of which it sounds like you are already doing. You also have the advantage of your son being older, which means the courts and attorneys take more consideration to what they want.

The costs varies from state to state and attorney and depends on how hard the bio dad wants to fight this if he does at all. In our adoption we could not find the bio dad and ended up having to hire an Warning Order Attorney whose sole purpose was to try to find him (he was never able to). For my husband to adopt my four kids it ended up costing 4,200 dollars which isn't bad when it meant so much to them.