C. C. and C‪.‬

This is an appeal from a judgment decreeing adoption of two children, a boy and a girl (hereinafter called ""the twins""), age six past at the time of filing of petitions for adoption and for order of custody 1 and age not quite nine at the time the decree was rendered, 2 also an older brother (who will be hereinafter referred to simply as ""the older boy""), who was sixteen past years old when the petitions were filed and nearing nineteen when the decree was entered. The older boy filed consent to the adoption. After the petitions were filed, the natural father brought for the custody of the children. After what appears to have been a lengthy hearing with many witnesses, The Honorable William L. Ragland, Judge, 3 denied the father's petition and ordered custody in the petitioners. Thereafter, Judge Ragland having been disqualified, The Honorable Marshall Craig, Special Judge, tried the issues on the petition for adoption and, after a rather lengthy and hard-fought proceeding, entered his judgment decreeing the adoption. The petition for adoption contained the usual allegations as to fitness of the adoptive parents and unfitness of the natural father. Specifically it charged that such father had willfully neglected to provide the children with the proper care and maintenance for a period of more than one year immediately prior to the filing of the petition.