Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Hello. My wife and I are Family Foster parents to my wife's 9 month old nephew. He has been with our family for almost 5 months. His birth parents have never had custody of him. Both were in jail, on drugs, etc and had a few state scheduled visits with him before they just stopped showing up. Child was born addicted to cocaine and other drugs mother was on. Had many health issues due to this, but is doing much better now. The parents were finally taken in, and are now in rehab.

Our family knows that these two will never be able to properly care for him. Father has a long criminal background with several domestic violence incidents. Mother is a teenage, 8th grade dropout , never employed and has her own criminal issues. Father was homeless, has no place to live, has never held a steady job in his life, except for drug dealing. Mother lives w/her mother who has her own DSS and alcohol issues.

We know that if the child goes to them, he will not be cared for and they will without a doubt neglect him. He still has issues from his addiction, does not sleep well and requires a lot of love and patience. My wife, myself and our children are the only family he has ever known. He has bonded with us and we believe that to send him to them would not only put him in danger, but would cause emotional damage to him as well.

Our question; in a few months they have a hearing and they fully expect to get custody. Do we have any rights or the ability to contest this, based on the above info? and what would be our options?

thank you

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