Please Help Me Adopt My Stepdaughter

I am a 47 year old mother of one natural born child. I am now wed to the father of a wonderful pre-teen, Zoe, and her birth mother has agreed to allow a step-parent adoption. Zoe is here helping clean the pool. Later you’ll see she is in the pink outfit and my Kim is in the black. Kim is new to college and lives in PA. Zoe and her dad and I are in NC. Zoe is in 7th grade. Her grades are great so far. Zoe has not had it easy at all, to say the least. Her birth mother abandoned her at six months old, and her father tried as best he could to raise a daughter properly. However, this presented some issues as he was an active-duty paratrooper and they were unable to have stable housing for the duration of his service term due to issues with the mom. At one time they were forced to live out of his only belonging - a 2004 dodge neon. In order to ensure she had food, he would “dumpster dive” for his needs and give her the food he could afford. (The reason for this was they were unable to remain on base because the mother had become abusive to both he and little Zoe and the Sargent Major (SGM) of Housing informed him that the housing was more for the spouse than it was the soldier.) Needless to say, I was shocked to learn that! So, For a while they “bounced around” until his discharge for injuries sustained in 2010. In 2011 he did get remarried and this woman, too, neglected the child. It resulted in divorce and I came into their life in February 2014. We wed about two years later on October 31, 2016. We are now working together to become a strong family unit, with our Philadelphia girl, Kim as well. Unfortunately I need some help in adopting Zoe. I am on SSDI For a spinal injury called myelopathy of the C Spine and I can no longer work. Disks are degenerating and there was a Traumatic brain injury To the left lobe. We also just found arthritis all throughout the c-spine. I’m in treatment again for it, now. It felt like everything I trained for and strived to achieve was lost in the blink of an eye when a file cabinet toppled over on me in 2010. I was, at that time, working for an Elder Law attorney, as his Paralegal, assisting people who needed social security and Nursing Home benefits. I am also hoping that by this adoption, Zoe’s birth mom can be prevented from ending up in jail as she is $12,000.00 in arrears on court ordered child support. She, too, has another child. Despite the lack of relationship with Zoe, as a mom I know the daughter she IS with needs her mom. Birth mom and I have a relatively good talking relationship, which is why I believe she is allowing me this honor. My own daughter is 18 and more than anything prays this can happen fast. Many times she’s been upset and says to me “we can’t lose Zoe!” Kim’s request for her gift for graduation from HS was to spend time with Zoe. It blew my mind! They are so close - sisters in every fashion, and more than anything I want us to be a legal, “real” family. If you can help, your support would be appreciated. You would be giving a girl a stable and happy family with a dad, new sister and a legal momma!