They're in their 60s and parenting yet again, balancing the struggles, joy of adoption

LOS ANGELES -- The graying couple raised their right hands in the children's courthouse, as the judge swore them in.

Teodulo Diarte held tight to his granddaughter Harmony as his wife, Olga Perez, kept her one good eye on their 2-year-old, Faith, who rocked back and forth. The couple, in their 60s, were preparing to adopt their two youngest granddaughters.

The pre-Thanksgiving ceremony wasn't the first time they had appeared in this courthouse on a similar crucial mission. They had already adopted their three older granddaughters here.

Diarte and Perez's daughter, Maria, had struggled for years with drug addiction. Four of her five daughters tested positive for drugs when they were born. Faith didn't eat for five days as she went through withdrawals at birth.

And so, like more than 2 million grandparents across the country who are raising their grandchildren, Diarte and Perez have forgone retirement to become parents once more. With the girls' various health issues, it is a 24-hour job.

The money the couple receive from the government each month to care for the girls goes toward groceries. Toward rent. Toward new shoes and clothes. They bought a minivan to take the girls to and from school and on trips.

They are the rare grandparents