1 H.A.M. and B.T.M. (Appellants) appeal the order of the Lackawanna County orphans’ court granting preliminary objections and dismissing their petition to adopt S.P.T. The orphans’ court concluded that Appellants had failed to obtain the requisite consent for adoption from the child’s guardian, see 23 Pa.C.S. � 2711, and so did not have standing to seek the adoption. We conclude that the orphans’ court did not abuse its discretion. Accordingly, we affirm.
2 H.A.M. is the biological mother of S.P.T., born in 1988. B.T.M. is H.A.M.’s current husband whom she married in 1994, and is not the father of S.P.T. H.A.M. and S.P.T.’s biological father (Father) did not marry, and in 1989, agreed jointly to transfer custody of S.P.T. to Andrew M. Thomas. Thomas, now deceased, was S.P.T.’s paternal grandfather. S.P.T. lived with Thomas from 1989 to 1993, during which time, H.A.M. visited the child weekly during the summer and monthly during the other months of the year. In 1993, H.A.M. and Father terminated their parental rights to S.P.T. voluntarily and consented to Thomas’s petition requesting that he be allowed to adopt S.P.T. The court decreed the adoption, and from 1993 to 1996 S.P.T. and Thomas lived as a family. During that time, H.A.M. continued to visit S.P.T. in the Thomas household.
3 In 1996, Thomas died, but left a will appointing his daughter Kathleen M. Thomas to be S.P.T.’s testamentary guardian (Guardian). The orphans’ court confirmed Guardian’s appointment, and S.P.T., then eight years old, moved into Guardian’s home, where she continues to reside. H.A.M. “back[ed] off” her attempts to contact S.P.T. after Andrew Thomas’s death due, ostensibly, to disagreements with Guardian. H.A.M. last visited S.P.T. in April 1997, and thereafter, on December 23, 1997, filed a petition for court-ordered visitation. Following a hearing on preliminary objections filed by Guardian, the orphans’ court concluded that H.A.M. failed to demonstrate that she had standing to seek visitation and dismissed H.A.M.’s petition. The court reasoned that H.A.M. had failed to demonstrate, by clear and convincing evidence, a substantial, sustained and sincere interest in the welfare of S.P.T. On appeal we affirmed the court’s order. See McNamara v. Thomas, 1999 PA Super 276 (unpublished memorandum).
