I am 18 years old and I want to adopt my brother Ty (14 years old) he lives in Ohio right now with our mother and her boyfriend. My mother is an alcoholic and her boyfriend is a druggy and a woman beater. Ty's dad lives in North Carolina and he is also a woman beater another reason why I moved to MA with my real father. I have no clue how I can go about adopting him. He has called me and texted me throughout the past few weeks crying telling me to save him. What do I do?

You call Child Protective Services in the state where he lives and get him taken out of your mother's home.

I sincerely doubt that you will be able to adopt him--not the least of the reasons being that you either have to get both of his parents to willingly relinquish their rights or PROVE that they are a danger to his well-being. You also have to prove that you can completely support him on your own, which is pretty tough to do.

You may, however, be able to get guardianship of him, but you will still need to either get permission from his parents or get the law involved.