In Re Adoption of Koszycki

Painter, Judge.

The issue before us, so far as we can determine, has never been decided by any Ohio court. The question is: Does a consent to adoption, properly executed and filed by a child’s biological mother, survive the dismissal of a contemporaneously filed petition for adoption, so that the initial consent constitutes a valid consent to adoption in a subsequent petition for adoption filed by the same petitioners concerning the adoption of the same child?

I. The Facts and Procedure to Date

The following facts are undisputed. In 1990, Jennifer Holt, the biological mother, filed an…