a parent and a third party who is not a legal parent may not circumvent the adoption laws by entering into a co-parenting agreement. Application of the waiver rule obviated the need for the court to address the question at issue in this appeal-whether a same-sex domestic partner may claim the rights of a parent. 6 . Partner does, however, argue that the trial court's conclusion that she was not a de facto custodian for the purposes of Ind.Code Ann. § 31-9-2-35.5 (West, Westlaw current with all 2013 legislation) was not supported by the evidence. We need not address this argument. Even assuming Partner is a de facto custodian, she was still required to overcome the presumption in favor of Mother as the natural parent. See In re Paternity of TP., 920 N.E.2d 726, 731 (Ind.Ct.App.2010) (<HOLDING>). Because the trial court applied the correct
recognizing that the child custody act required that the natural parent presumption must be seriously considered and heavily weighted in favor of the parent but that the presumption is rebutted if the clear and convincing evidence establishes that the best interest of the child is served by awarding custody to the third party recognizing presumption and finding that it was overcome holding that de facto custodians are still required to overcome the natural parent presumption in order to gain custody holding de facto custodian status does not remove the presumption in favor of natural parents obtaining or retaining custody of their children holding that a de facto parents rights do not infringe on the fundamental liberty interests of the other legal parent in a family unit because de facto status can be achieved only through the active encouragement of the biological or adoptive parent by affirmatively establishing a family unit with the de facto parent and child or children that accompany the family