One of my favorite parts of my job is doing a step parent adoption as I personally went through it. My mom and my "stepdad" met when I was 8 and I was very blessed to be adopted at 11 by him. I have had a wonderful, loving home to come home to. My dad has been my biggest supporter through everything and I can't imagine not having him in my life. I am now 21 years old and my biological father tried to reach out. Let me start out by saying I hardly knew his first name so imagine how overwhelmed I'm feeling. Although I feel overwhelmed and thrown off my biggest stress has been my mother and my father. I would never want my dad to feel like he is going to lose his role because after all he did deal with my teenage years (that deserves and award for itself) but he has been there for me at all of my basketball games that he could attend, has been there to listen to me when I had a worry and has been there to protect me. I also know how my mother feels, scared I will move away to meet this "new family", scared that I will forget my dad's role, scared that I will believe some of the he said she said. I found out that I have 5 other "siblings" which is SUPER weird to me because I'm used to only having my eight year old brother, he is my world and accepting someone into that role is just flat out strange! I'm not used to having my personal life have such drastic changes but like I said my biggest worry is my family. This is going to be a long journey and I will let anyone know that if you are scared of this happening to your child when they are mature enough to comprehend I can personally tell you that you have nothing to worry about because you did the best you possibly could for your child, you gave them a great gift by giving them a parent that will raise them as if they were their own and your child will understand and will be thankful so please DON'T WORRY!
-Paola Decristofaro
Legal Assistant at Peterson Family Law