Do we have rights?

Our family took in four little boys over the summer and they have been living with us for the past three months. The father and mother are not divorced or legally seperated, but they split up their ten kids and gave them away basicly to four different familys.
The father gave us rights over them for the rest of the school year. We are trying to figure out how to get them back on the medicare that they recently lost. They need to go to the dentist and doctor very badly. The parents neither call or see them, and we need help. They are going to court to get divorced and we fear that the boys will be taken away.
The parents dont take very good care of them,and we would like to keep them, since we are their only real family as it seems.We have also done everythingfor them, bought them new clothes, food, and we put them in school. Before they came to live with us they all slept on a bedroom floor, with thier other siblings, and never owned a toothbrush before. They are nine, seven, five,and four.Neither one of the parents has any children now, so we fear that the mother may split and the father will follow her. Can we force them to give us custody? What are the chances that a judge will give them to us permanently, if they are taken away from the parents at court? We will take all of the information we can. Please help us.

Taking care of children, of itself, is not likely to give you any legal rights. Your best path to gaining rights is through a guardianship, or otherwise obtaining a court order placing the children with you. You should consider consulting a local lawyer or legal aid office to see what remedies are available to you.