Can I adopt my stepchild while my spouse is deployed from Delaware?

Yes, you can start preparing a stepparent adoption in Delaware while your spouse is deployed. How the deployment affects signatures and the hearing is a question for the Family Court clerk in your county, because the Delaware rules we work from don't address deployment.

What Delaware law does say that applies to you:

• Court: Stepparent adoptions are handled by the Family Court.
• Your eligibility: Under 13 Del. C. § 903, you must be over age 21 when the petition is filed. You must also be a Delaware resident or a person with whom the child has been placed. Delaware sets no minimum residency period, so you don't have to wait out a set number of months.
• Child's consent: Under 13 Del. C. § 907(b), a child who is 14 or older has a consent role in the adoption. If your stepchild is younger than that, this doesn't apply.
• Home study: Delaware does not waive the home study in stepparent cases (13 Del. C. § 912). Ask the clerk how scheduling a home visit works when one spouse is away.
• The other biological parent: If that parent's rights must be ended, Delaware treats termination as a separate step. Abandonment is addressed in 13 Del. C. § 1103 and involves a period of 6 months. Whether it fits your situation depends on facts, so check with the clerk or an attorney.
• Timeline: Stepparent adoptions in Delaware typically take 4-6 months. A long deployment may affect when you can complete the process.

What to confirm with the Family Court clerk:

• Whether your deployed spouse needs to sign anything, and whether signing from another location is acceptable.
• Whether your spouse must attend the finalization hearing, and whether remote participation is possible.
• Whether military service of a biological parent, yours or the other parent's, changes any deadlines or notice steps.
• Current filing fees and any local filing requirements.

If your situation involves a contested case, an unknown parent, or a deadline tied to the deployment, an attorney can advise you on that specific issue.

Practical steps while you wait:

• Gather the child's birth certificate, your marriage certificate, and identification for you and your spouse.
• Ask your spouse to look at the paperwork early, so any questions can be settled before the deployment makes communication harder.
• Call the clerk's office first, so you know the court's expectations before you file.

How we help: StepParent Adoption 360 is a document preparation service, not a law firm. You answer questions online, and we prepare the complete court document package for your county. You then file it yourself without an attorney. The cost is $349 for the first child, and $99 for each additional child. Court-ready documents are delivered within 24-48 hours after you finish the questions, and we back them with a 100% court acceptance guarantee. We have helped 89 Delaware families, and more than 34,000 families nationally since 2001.