For a relative to adopt a child(ren) all the parental rights of the legal and biological parents must be terminated or they must consent to the adoption. In a relative adoption, there is no waiting period (the adoptive relative doesn’t have to have had physical custody of the child(ren) for six months as in other adoptions), and the Judge can waive the requirement of the home study.

Who is a “relative”? Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1- 102 (44)  “Related” means grandparents or any degree of great-grandparents, aunts or uncles, or any degree of great-aunts or great-uncles, or step-parent, or cousins of the first degree or any siblings of the whole or half degree or any spouse of the above listed relatives;