Stepparents are able to adopt their stepchildren when they're married or, in California, if they have a domestic partner and they want to provide a permanent home and be the legal parent of that child. The custodial parent of the child would remain the parent of the child, and that person would need to sign a consent to allow their domestic partner or their spouse to adopt their child. The non-custodial parent, that is the other biological or legal parent of the child, they would have to either consent to the adoption or the rights would have to be terminated by the court. Stepparent adoption is relatively a fairly simple procedure but they get complicated if the non-custodial parent does not agree with the adoption plan. So it's important to have a good adoption professional helping out with the adoption to make sure that everything goes smoothly. There's normally a home study that's done on the adopting parent to make sure that they're able to provide adequately for the child.