Before you even begin the legal adoption process the two of you will have to get married. The court won't do an adoption by unrelated parties. If he wants to legally commit to the children, he'll have to legally commit to you first.

As long as he didn't lose his parental rights because he was abusing his other child and placed on a registry that would bar him from adopting, his simply not having custody of his child shouldn't be an issue in adopting your children after you marry.

Adoptions aren't inexpensive, even when it's open and all parties are in agreement. This is not a do-it-yourself legal procedure. You will still have to go through all the court proceedings for home studies and court costs.

The adoption also will not erase any child support arrears that are owed by their father. He will still owe that, so if he's willing to do this only because he thinks the child support debt will be erased, he'll be disappointed.

I do wish you luck, it's not a quick or inexpensive process, but it is quite doable if their father agrees to the adoption.

While I'm not an attorney, I would think that it would be a good idea for you and your fiance to be married before he adopted your children.

Once your marriage takes place, if the birth father is willing to give up his rights to the children, it seems like it would be fairly easy to go through the formalities of the adoption.

I agree with IMHO and GypsyQueen, the courts want to see a stable home environment which would mean a married couple. And after that the proceedings would be easy, you can call down to the clerk of courts to ask them the necessary papers to file and procedures you would need to take to get this process started. With the Clerk of Courts mapping everything out for you with a checklist, it will make your next step alot easier. Normally it may take up to a year, to petition the biological father and having him sign over his rights, and to ensure the courts you and your new husband are still maintaining a strong relationship, and a good home life for the children. It's not a hard process, you just need to follow the necessary steps to satisfy the courts.

First you have to be married and the biological father has to sign and agree to give up his rights and also in most states he has 6 months to change his mind before it is finalized so keep that in mind. As far as him not having custody of his own long as it wasnt for neglect or abuse it shouldnt be a problem but the burth dad has to agree. If you want to discuss farther email me directly i have gone through this personally myself and dont wish to put it all out here for all to see.