Another case: single mother has kids and gets married to a guy so kids have stable father figure. Mom dies before stepdad can legally adopt kids (which you have to do in all states, I believe; you don't become legal parent instead of guardian just by virtue of marriage). Stepdad is screwed out of taking care of "his" kids. This is the kind of thing you see in Lifetime movies, where the stepdad tearfully triumphs over the manipulative family of the mother, but now, in Arkansas, that happy ending will never happen.

Very! Fucked! Up!