Do you have a lawyer? Do you talk to the mom & dad? Unless their rights have been terminated by the court, they will have to sign papers allowing you to adopt. If they won't sign the papers, then I believe your lawyer can take the case to court to terminate their rights & allow you to adopt.

I adopted my nephew at birth. My sister signed the papers, and we attempted to locate the father, advertised in newspapers where we believed he might be living, and then the court terminated his paternal rights because he had not supported my sister or baby throughout the entire pregnancy.

We are now in the process of adopting our granddaughter, or trying to. The mother has agreed to it, but we can't adopt without dismissing the custody order, and we can't dismiss that until she's able to care for her son. These are considered inter-family adoptions, and are much easier than a normal adoption. At least in my state, we didn't need a home study or a social worker or anything like that, it was just a simple matter of paperwork.

Good luck!

I read on line in order to termenate the parents rights there is several things that was listed. For my state if the child has not lived with them 15 months out of 22 months. If they have never paid any child support. Anyway I do not know since the list was pretty long if has to be 10 out of 20 reasons or if one or two reasons are enough.
It sounds like you shouldn't have a problem with it.Sounds like you have a good case.

I live in TN and have adopted my granddaughter. My daughter is deceased but we had to get the father's rights terminated in order to adopt. Even though he was not involved in her life he would not sign over his rights. I kept meticulous records of when he called and when he visited, even when his mother called, any child support etc. In the state of TN 4 months without visitation or child support is considered abandonment at which point you can file with the courts to terminate parental rights. My granddaughter was assigned a guardian ad litem who became her guardian angel as it is her job to look out for the best interest of the child. We also had a CASA volunteer who was also wonderful. They come into your home and interview you and others including the parents of the child to help determine what is best. You definitely need to get legal advice. It took us about 10 months to get everything done.