In re Adoption Cassius

This appeal arises from the decrees issued on three petitions for private adoption brought pursuant to G. L. c. 210, §§ 3 and 6. The petitions concern three children: Cassius, born in January, 2006; Amanda, born in February, 2007; and Stephanie, born in November, 2010. The petitioners, the children's mother and her husband, the children's stepfather, sought decrees terminating the parental rights of the children's father and dispensing with the need for the father's consent to the adoption of the children by the stepfather. Following a trial at which the petitioners, the father, and the…