Judge Delays Hearing in Adoption Custody Case : Courts: Couple who have cared for Michael, 2, since birth are ordered to enter mediation with boy’s biological father.

A judge postponed a court hearing Friday on the fate of a 2 1/2-year-old boy whose biological father wants him back from adoptive parents.

Juvenile Court Judge Michael Wellington ordered adoptive parents Peggy and John Stenbeck and natural father Mark King into mediation until an Oct. 1 hearing to try to end their battle over Michael.

Until that hearing, Michael will stay with the Stenbecks, the judge said.

The Stenbecks had sought a ruling to have Michael remain with them while they appeal an earlier decision by Wellington that rejected their adoption.

Wellington ruled in March that King had shown sufficient commitment to his parental responsibilities to require his consent before the adoption could proceed.

But King of Prescott, Ariz., opposes the adoption and wants custody of Michael.

The child’s birth mother, identified only as Stephanie, has said she would take Michael back rather than allow King, whom she never married, to have him.

The battle is similar to the recent, highly publicized fight over Jessica, 2, who was taken from adoptive parents in Michigan and returned to her birth parents in Iowa.

Stephanie lived at the Stenbecks’ home in San Diego during the last few weeks of her pregnancy after learning through relatives that the couple wanted to adopt a child.

About two months before Michael was born, King telephoned the couple from Arizona and was asked by Peggy Stenbeck about the possibility of adopting his child.

Peggy Stenbeck contends that King said he wasn’t ready to be a father, so the couple went ahead with their adoption plans.

King acknowledges that he didn’t oppose adoption, but said he didn’t support it either. He never signed a consent form that usually is required from both parents for an adoption.