In re the Adoption of Siefner

BRIGHTMIRE, Judge.

The dispositive question is whether the failure to comply with pre-decree statutory requirements1 is fatal to an adoption decree rendered below. We hold that it is and reverse the order denying the natural mother’s motion to vacate it.

I

Reduced to bare essentials, the operative facts are these. On June 14, 1978, 19-year-old Katherine Siefner and her estranged husband signed a form consenting to the adoption of their one-year-old baby girl by Robert and Darlene Clark. The next day the Clarks filed a petition asking the court to waive the six month waiting period and, upon…