L v. L

Natural mother, Kim, appeals from a judgment terminating her parental rights to D.L., her son, and decreeing that D.L. is adopted by Chris, his natural father, and Judy, his stepmother. We reverse. D.L. was born in 1988. In 1991 the marriage of Kim and Chris was dissolved. The dissolution was by default as Kim did not answer or appear. The decree provided that Chris would have custody of D.L. and that Kim pay $200 per month in child support. The parties all agree that Kim made no payments of child support. Chris testified that he never discussed the matter of support with Kim and never asked her to make support payments. At one time when he was out of work he sought assistance payments from the state and he believed the state contacted Kim to obtain payments from her. Kim testified that she was not aware of the court order requiring support payments until January 1993 when she received notification that she owed back child support. She testified that she did not have the money to pay the support provided in the decree. Chris testified that the reason he never brought up the issue of child support with Kim was ""For the most part, I was making enough money to support the family. And although the $200 would have helped out a lot, it wouldn't have made that big of an impact on the life-style that we led as a family.""