This is going to probably be a tricky question. My parents have raised my sisters 2 girls all their lives because my sister does not want her children and can't seem to settle down and care for them or get away from the drugs, she willingly went to my parents' lawyer with them and signed over power of attorney over both of her girls to my parents as well as temporary guardianship/custody of both girls... this is witnessed and signed and is completely legal. So my question is this: if my parents went after full custody of my neices on child abandonment?. which my sister has pretty much done since she is only around them maybe a week total every year and some years she isn't around at all and doesn't have contact with them at all... even when she is around she wants nothing to do with them and will not interact with them at all... would they be able to get full custody of the girls without them becoming a ward of the state first and being put in foster care and my parents having to petition this whole process in order to get them back and gain full custody of them or would they have to go through the process of the girls becoming wards of the state and going into foster care and my parents having to petition the courts to get them back?
Any and all help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
K

Of course they would not go into foster care, since they have emp custody and guardianship.

What they would do is merely file for full custody in court and the real mother and father would have to be contacted to give their permission, or at least attempt to find them accourding to court rules would be followed.

So it starts with your parents going to an attorney and getting specific legal advice, getting an idea of the price of all of this legal action. And then to start the process.

Of course at this time, the real mother could ask for full custody back also, but your parents attorney would go over all of this with them

Unless someone were to contest your parents' petition, they'd probably be able to get full custody. It's unlikely that they'd become wards of the state if your parents can demonstrate that they are capable and able to raise the girls.