What if the biological parent sends a gift but has no other contact — is that abandonment in Vermont?

A gift with no other contact doesn't automatically settle the question in Vermont, and the answer depends on your family's facts. Vermont's abandonment provision is 15A V.S.A. § 3-504, and it uses a 6-month period. Whether a gift counts as contact that changes the picture is something the Probate Court looks at in your specific case. The Probate Court clerk in your county or an attorney can tell you how that applies to you.

What we can say about the 6-month period: Under 15A V.S.A. § 3-504, the abandonment period is 6 months. So the first thing to work out is what contact, if any, the biological parent has had during that stretch, and what a gift on its own means for your situation.

Why the details matter: A gift is only one piece of the history. These facts will all be relevant:

• When the gift was sent and what it was
• Whether it came with any message to the child
• Whether there has been any call, visit, letter or other contact before or after it
• Whether the parent has asked about the child or tried to arrange time with them

A single gift can look very different depending on what surrounds it, so avoid assuming either way until you have the full timeline written down.

What to do now:

• Write a dated timeline. Note every gift, card, call, message, visit or support payment, and the dates when there was no contact at all.
• Keep the evidence. Save packaging, messages, postmarks and anything else that shows when the gift arrived and what came with it.
• Be accurate and complete. Include contact that helps your case and contact that doesn't. A full, honest record is more useful to you and to the court.
• Ask about contested situations. If the biological parent is likely to object, or you aren't sure where the parent is, talk to the Probate Court clerk or an attorney about that specific issue before you file.

Other Vermont facts that may help you plan:

• Adoptions are filed in the Probate Court.
• A home study is waived under 15A V.S.A. § 4-110(a).
• Our stepparent adoption timeline in Vermont is typically 3-6 months.

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 price is $349 for the first child and $99 for each additional child, and your court-ready documents arrive within 24-48 hours after you finish the questions. We back this with a 100% court acceptance guarantee. We have helped 87 Vermont families, and more than 34,000 families nationally since 2001.