My husband's ex-wife just recently contacted us advising that she would be willing to terminate her parental rights, due to the fact that she owes over $28,000.00 in back support. This is great news for us, because while we have always held out hope that she would come to her senses and make an effort to be a part of the kids lives, we also knew that if she didn't that we wanted me to adopt them and become their legal mother. However, I don't really know the process here. How do we go about assisting her in terminating her rights, and once that is done what is the process of a step-parent adoption? We live in Texas while their biological mother moved out of state several years ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
PS
I noticed on other threads that while the biological parent is not longer responsible for support from the date of the adoption by the step-parent, they are still responsible for the back support owed. Is there some way that we would be able to forgo the back support, say sign documentation that relinquishes her from the back support? We were never interested in her money we only wanted her to be a responsible parent, and unfortunately she has failed in that respect. All we are hoping for is an uncontested end to her parental rights and a smooth process of me adopting the children.

