Background
S.K.S. (“Mother”) and R.A.F. (“Father”) are the biological parents of P.M.F. (“Child”). After their relationship ended, an agreed 2018 order awarded Father sole custody and gave Mother regular visitation. Mother last saw Child in February 2020 and last spoke with Child in May 2020. She acknowledged that she stopped trying to maintain contact while abusing drugs and provided no financial or material support after 2020.
Mother became sober in January 2022 but waited until December 2022 to contact Father about seeing Child. Father largely did not respond, blocked Mother’s telephone number and social-media account, and failed to provide information about Child as the agreed order required. Mother nevertheless did not seek judicial enforcement of her visitation rights until July 2025.
Father married M.A.F. (“Stepmother”) in 2022. Stepmother had assumed a parental role in Child’s life, and Child asked to be adopted by her. Stepmother petitioned for adoption without Mother’s consent. Following an evidentiary hearing, the family court found three statutory grounds under KRS 199.502(1), determined that adoption served Child’s best interests, and entered the adoption judgment.
The Court’s Holding
The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed. Substantial evidence supported the family court’s finding that Mother abandoned Child for at least 90 days under KRS 199.502(1)(a). Mother voluntarily had no contact with Child from May 2020 until December 2022, a period far exceeding the statutory minimum. Her later sobriety and attempts to reconnect did not erase the completed period of abandonment. Although Father obstructed Mother’s later communications, his conduct did not explain her earlier absence or prevent her from seeking enforcement of the existing visitation order.
The family court did not expressly make the prospective-improvement findings required by KRS 199.502(1)(e) and (g), but Mother failed to preserve that omission by requesting additional findings under CR 52.04. Regardless, any error was harmless because proof of abandonment under subsection (a) independently satisfied KRS 199.502(1), which requires only one enumerated condition.
The family court also acted within its discretion in finding adoption to be in Child’s best interests. Its findings addressed Child’s stable household, her close mother-daughter bond with Stepmother, Child’s stated desire to be adopted, and the favorable recommendations of both the guardian ad litem and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The court was not required to consider less drastic alternatives because Kentucky’s current adoption statute imposes no such requirement.
Key Takeaways
- A completed period of parental abandonment lasting at least 90 days may support adoption without consent even if the parent later improves and attempts to reconnect.
- Because KRS 199.502(1) requires proof of only one enumerated condition, a supported abandonment finding can make errors concerning alternative statutory grounds harmless.
- A party generally must request omitted essential findings in the trial court under CR 52.04 before seeking reversal based on that omission.
Why It Matters
The decision confirms that Kentucky courts evaluate whether the statutory period of abandonment occurred, not merely whether abandonment continued through the filing of the adoption petition. Later rehabilitation is relevant but does not nullify an earlier qualifying period of voluntary absence.
The opinion also underscores two procedural points for adoption appeals: counsel must provide issue-specific preservation statements under Kentucky’s appellate rules, and challenges to omitted factual findings must first be raised in the trial court.