How do you adopt your wife's 13-year-old daughter if her father has never seen her and does not pay any child support and the only thing that connects her to him is his name on the birth certificate

Answer

My longtime friend married a woman who had a son whose father also never knew them, didn't pay support, etc...

He adopted the child after a couple of years of being married. He told me that he simply went through the same procedures as any other adoption. It was even easier because the mother gave consent to do so. Check your local county courthouse for the proper applications and documents or seek an adoption lawyer who specializes in that field.

Answer

I'm in Michigan and the way that we handled that was by calling the "County Court" where we live.

They hooked us up with the Family Courts.

You have to be married (at least in our state) for one year and then there is an 'application' process. It took a few months to get completed as we had to "petition the court" to terminate the parental rights of the bio father that had nothing to do with the child. All in all there were 3 court visits and only about $125 in fees. A fairly easy process.