Adoption of D.R. CA1/3

I. Background

D.R. (father) and S.S. (mother) are the biological parents of D.R. (the child) born in December 2010. In January 2011, the parents and the child moved into an apartment rented by the child’s paternal aunt. Sometime in March 2011, mother and the child

1 All further unspecified statutory references are to the Family Code.

1 moved into the home of A.N. and J.N., the child’s guardians, and the child has lived with the guardians since that time.2 In January 2012, the guardians took the child to visit with the child’s paternal relatives. However, three or four days into the visit, father contacted the guardians and informed them he was keeping the child. Father kept the child until the child got sick and was hospitalized. When mother learned of the child’s hospitalization, mother successfully secured an emergency protective court order against father. On February 14, 2012, the court granted mother’s ex parte request for temporary sole legal and physical custody of the child; the court ordered that father was not to have visitation at that time.3 Immediately following the child’s discharge from the hospital in February 2012, mother and the child returned to the…