Can I adopt my sister?

[skysky99]

I live in North Carolina. I currently live with my step-dad and my mother. My father is in Florida. Our house is very unstable and not fit for me (18) and my 2 sisters (both 16). I'm planning on moving out with my 24-year-old girlfriend before the end of the year. I want to bring my sisters with me but I believe we might get some resistance from my mother. I know we won't have a problem getting on, especially with the help of our grandparents. I want to adopt or become the legal guardian of them. Is that the best way? Or should we try to get them emancipated? our last resort is foster care for them. We really don't want that but I also want this to go over as calmly and smoothly as possible. What do we do?

 

[Zigner]

You have NO chance of snatching your sisters away from their parent, so you should get that out of your head as soon as possible.

Please speak to a counselor, clergy-person, therapist, or anyone other authority figure about the conditions. They are obligated to report them so that the safety of the home can be evaluated.

 

[cbg]

If your sisters are not living on their own and paying all their own expenses, emancipation is a non-starter as well.

 

[commentator]

Your mother and stepfather are not going to let your sisters move out. Accept it. You and your 24 year old girlfriend is questionable enough, messing around with you before you were 18, right? Are your mother and step father receiving any child support for these children (what they are, in the eyes of the law)?

If so that doesn't accompany them to a girlfriend's house. What about Social Security, or any sort of public assistance, like SNAPP? If your home is such that its bad or unsafe or they are being mistreated, foster care is about the only alternative, because your sisters will have to be legally taken from your mother and placed in some other form of official custody. Rest assured, they won't be able to get emancipated. They won't be able to just move in with you and your girlfriend or with their grandparents. It just won't happen until they are over the age of majority.