Adopting Niece by interstate adoption

[ham3809]

Me and my wife have been raising our niece since she was 2 days old she is now 6 years old. My sister in law signed custody rights to us. She has been in and out of jail several times and lives in a differant state, she is in CA and we are in LA.
We started adoption paperwork in Louisiana before our niece started school in 2004. Paperwork was sent out to CA for the parents to sign, the mother was in county jail until Aug 16, 2005. The father has become a recluse who fears to leave his mothers house to keep from getting in any other trouble with the law. Both parents will sign the required paperwork, they have told us and others that they will not object to the adoption.
Our biggest problem is that LA and CA are under different adoption laws. We dont want to pay another Attorney in CA to continue the adoption. It has been explained to us that an attorney needs to be present for both parents to sign the paperwork, so that the parents rights can be explained to them.
My question is can the biological parents obtain free legal aid to sign the papers or do they need to hire an attorney?

Please help we want to make this adoption legal and get on with our lives. Any comments or information will be greatly appreciated.

[aaron]

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