Van Kleek v. State Public Welfare Commission

(Pro Tempore).

This is an appeal from a decree of the circuit court dismissing a petition to adopt a six-and-one-half-year-old boy. The matter had been appealed from the district court, sitting in probate, after a decree of that court denying the petition to adopt.

The child was born out of wedlock and was placed by his mother with the petitioner and his third wife shortly after birth. Some effort was made by the petitioner and his then wife, referred to here as Lorayne, to adopt the child soon after his placement in their home, but it appears that no formal proceedings to that end were then…