Pursuing Grandparent Visitation After an Adoption

My question involves a child visitation case from the State of: New York
My daughter relinquished her daughter to her uncle, my husbands brother, in 2010. Within a few days of relinquishing she knew she'd made the wrong choice and asked for her daughter back. They refused and then cut her, and us, out of their lives for over a year. They finally allowed my daughter visitation after our granddaughters first birthday. They continue to deny us, her grandparents, visitation. Prior to my daughter terminating her rights, we informed them of our intentions to remain a part of our granddaughters life. They agreed and stated they understood and that we would "even be considered her grandparents". This was a verbal agreement. We have nothing in writing. Although, I think it is obvious since we did not pursue a stranger adoption that we wanted to be a part of our granddaughter's life. We consulted lawyers after our daughter changed her mind, and all of them told us we would probably not be able to overturn her voluntary termination of rights and it would damage our relationship with our brother and sister-in-law. Our daughter relinquished in the state of Illinois. Our brother and his wife live in New York. They advised us to wait it out, and that things would probably resolve themselves. Our granddaughter is now going to be 4 years old in March and we've asked many times to visit only to be met with mean and angry denials. We've sent gifts and cards, but we are fairly sure they do not give them to her. We later learned of New York's rulings on grandparent visitation and that grandparents can pursue visitation, and even custody in some cases, if they have a relationship with their grandchild even in cases of adoption. We are fairly sure this is the reason they deny us visitation and do not allow her any of the gifts we send. I am of the opinion the current situation is not in the best interest of our granddaughter. It is the only reason my daughter chose them to adopt. Their agreement to allow us visitation was verbal, but would this help us in any way in pursuing visitation? We've tried to open communication with them, but they refuse. Would there be any hope of us being granted any kind of visitation if we pursued it through the courts in New York?

Please clarify - has the child been adopted?

If so, where did the adoption take place?

Yes, she has been adopted. Our granddaughter was born in Illinois, and the adoption took place in Illinois. The adoptive parents live in New York.

You have a couple of problems.

The first is that so far you've shown no pre-existing bond which is required. The child is just 3, and you've had no contact for over a year - that in itself would generally exclude the grandparents.

The second is that grandparent visitation ordered before a stepparent adoption can survive the adoption. But in the case of a non-stepparent adoption where there is no preexisting visitation order, the grandparents are generally out of luck.

The most reasonable and realistic option is to keep on the good side of the parents.

Thank you for your time and answer. Unfortunately, there is no "good side". They shut us out the minute they took our granddaughter. Again, thank you for your time.