GEOFF BENNETT: Today, more than 2.5 million children across the country live in households where grandparents have taken on the role of primary caregiver.

These so-called grandfamilies provide a critical safety net for children, but many grandparents face challenges navigating custody issues and accessing the resources and support they need.

A new book, "Grandfamilies: Stories of Children and the Loving Relatives Who Raise Them" by Donna Butts, tells the story of the fight for the rights of these unique caregivers and features testimony from many who are part of grandfamilies themselves.

We spoke with one of them, Adam Otto.

ADAM OTTO, Raised By Grandparents: I'm Adam Otto.

I'm 36 years old, and I was raised by my paternal grandparents, Jack and Annie Otto.

I'm very fortunate to have been raised by such amazing people who gave up their retirement for me in a lot of ways.

My mother had issues taking care of me, a lot of love, but not necessarily a lot of great ability to effectively parent.

So, eventually, I was placed in my father's care full-time.

Unfortunately, he died shortly after I turned 9.

And from there they raised me full-time until adulthood.

The best thing about being raised by grandparents was the unconditional love.

I could never make a mistake that was too much for them to help me see my way through.

There's a lot of amazing foster parents out there, but people do better with relatives generally.

And I think that was certainly the case for me.

I had a lot of disciplinary problems in school, small town in West Virginia, not always necessarily equipped for, like, queer kids who are above average intelligence and kind of social difficulties, just like a little soup of everything.

But here I am now because they never really gave up on me.

Without familial support, I think I would probably be a victim of the opioid epidemic, be lucky to be alive.

I think my outcomes would not have been particularly ideal.

With the familial support that I had, I have flourished, right?

I was able to graduate college, get a graduate degree, hold down steady employment, buy a house.

And I think very little of that would have been available to me if I hadn't had those kinds of structures to support me and keep me from falling in place.

I think that's something to take away from the grandfamilies experiences, is you can make something beautiful and powerful and resilient out of something that's tragic, right, or difficult.

GEOFF BENNETT: I recently sat down with Donna Butts, the author of "Grandfamilies" and also the longtime executive director of the advocacy group Generations United.

I started by asking her why she felt these families deserve a spotlight.

DONNA BUTTS, Author, "Grandfamilies: Stories of Children and the Loving Relatives Who Raise Them": I really felt they needed to have a light shine on them.

I really wanted to honor the work that they do.

I mean, they're so inspirational and resilient, and so few people know about what it means to grow up in a grandfamily or to be a caregiver in a grandfamily.

So I wanted to shine a light on that through the stories of the families, because I think that those are what's so powerful are those individual stories, from the children, the grand successes, and the grandparents and other relatives.

GEOFF BENNETT: You write that too often grandfamilies are often viewed through the lens of what's missing, absent parents, hardship, crisis.

What's the mistake people make when they start there?

DONNA BUTTS: They start with the deficit.

They think that there is -- there almost is always some tragic reason why the family came together.

But the strength, whether it's the cultural strength, the strength of the individuals who are in that family, they really bring that resilience and that belief in the children that they're raising.

So many of the children, just like Adam said, would have ended up in a much, much more tragic situation.

Very -- often times, that means homeless, unemployed, addicted to drugs.

But the investment that those caregivers, the grandparents, the aunts, uncles make, and that unconditional love makes such a difference in a child's life.

GEOFF BENNETT: Many grandparents find themselves doing something extraordinary, which is raising children again at a time when many of them thought they wouldn't be in those positions.

Where do they often run into the most obstacles?

DONNA BUTTS: Well, there are a number of obstacles because they haven't raised children for a while.

And oftentimes it has to do with the legal arrangement.

Usually, this happens in the middle of the night.

It's unexpected.

It's not planned.

They may have planned for a wonderful retirement.

There was a grandmother in Kansas City, for example, who raised her children, downsized to a one-bedroom condo, white carpets, crystal figures, and she was living the dream of a single woman.

And then there came a knock in the middle of the night on her door, and it was two -- the authorities with two young grandchildren.

So the crystal figures went in the closet, the white carpet didn't stay white, and it was dreams deferred.

I mean, she did that, but she had to do it suddenly.

So it's where do you find the resources immediately, and how do you get the truth, the real facts, instead of some of the rumors?

And that's where some of the difficulty is.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned the resources.

Many of these families depend on social programs like TANF or Medicaid, ACA-related coverage.

These are programs that are being debated right now on Capitol Hill and have sustained cuts, many of these programs.

What are you watching closely in terms of what these families need?

DONNA BUTTS: Well, Generations United, which is the organization that I used to lead, is watching very, very closely what's happening with TANF, what's happening with food assistance, what's happening with access to medical care.

And the reason is, what I tried to document in the book was the progress that we have made over almost 30 years, us and other advocates working on behalf of the families.

And it's something to be celebrated, but it can be clawed back so quickly.

TANF is oftentimes the only financial support for the children.

Oftentimes, SNAP, or the food stamp benefit, used to be food stamps, is the way that they access food.

And then, when it comes to health care, they most often always have special needs and need extra support in that area.

So, as these programs face cuts, these families face even a more devastating cut.

And then, currently, as we all know, prices are going up.

And when you're on a fixed income and prices go up, it's very difficult, because the children just keep growing.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's the emotional and financial toll for taking on this kind of responsibility later in life?

DONNA BUTTS: What worries me is that it's sort of we're going to be paying for it on one end or the other.

They oftentimes will mortgage their homes.

They will spend down their retirement savings, like Adrian, a woman I write about in the book.

She went to court 127 times and spent down over $100,000 of her retirement, her only money in retirement, to get custody of her grandson.

So they're doing those kind of sacrifices now, rather than being able to save for their own well-being and their own ability to retire well.

But the flip side of that is, oftentimes, it gives them a sense of purpose.

They take better care of themselves.

They know they need to be there, and they want to be there for those children.

GEOFF BENNETT: And what kind of outcomes did the children see who grew up in these grandfamilies?

DONNA BUTTS: They fare so much better than children who are raised either bouncing around from foster homes, and they don't have the stability.

One of the most important things we can give children is roots and love.

And when a child is raised by relatives, they know what their family history is.

They know what their culture is, how they're connected to their culture.

And children who are raised in grandfamilies are more likely to report feeling loved.

They feel loved, just as Adam was saying, that unconditional love.

A foster parent might have thrown him out because of some of his behavior.

But his grandparents were always going to know that he could age out of a system, but never out of a family.

GEOFF BENNETT: Donna Butts.

The new book is "Grandfamilies: Stories of Children and the Loving Relatives Who Raise Them."

Thanks for being here.

DONNA BUTTS: Thank you, Geoff.