Adoption tax credit set to expire!

As our long term readers know by now we are planning to adopt this year or next. We've started the process and are hoping things continue to progress quickly. Our biggest hinderance in expediency at the moment is financing it. We need funds to start moving forward and are currently waiting on the funds to come together just to do the initial applications.

Financial costs of adoption is the main reason it's taken us this long to get to this point. It is very unfair to both waiting children, and waiting families that the whole process costs so much. The adoption tax credit often is the only tangible thing that makes it possible for many families to grow, and we are no different as we are hoping this will still be available to help us cover the costs that the process & initial move (for the child) will incur,

The adoption tax credit was set up to aid families in adopting waiting children so that the burden is taken off the system and that waiting children would be placed with able families who can afford the additional person in there household, but not that initial expense of brining them home. The credit has been broad in it's application and is used in the majority of cases for families who are adopting abroad. Personally I think ANY adoption of ANY waiting child is a beautiful thing. However as the government tries to save face and change some failed spending there has been talk and again is renewed talk about doing away with the adoption tax credit as it's not doing what it was intended to. The case is rightly made that many children still suffer waiting a forever home here in this country as the funds meant to find them a home is often applied to bring in a child from another country,

We are very drawn to adopting and giving a new start to a child from the state foster system, and so we are aware that the type of adoption we plan on pursuing is one that falls in line with the original intent of the credit. However, as the pendulum swings and framers over-react and talk about potentially doing away with it all together this will cause the problem for many that the credit is meant to address. Our thoughts are that if the issues is to ensure that funding be used only to fund foster adoptions to then re-write the credit to work as such, but not to do away with it completely.

We are currently working on writing and sending our letters to congress to let them know what this would mean to us, and we hope that you will do the same! Please write on behalf of us and all the other families & CHILDREN who this will effect.

This year the 2009 Federal Adoption Tax credit is $12,150 but the tax credit is set to expire in December 2010 unless Congress votes to continue it. HR 213 would save the tax credit, and hopefully make it permanent. Please urge for this to be passed!

Write your representative today!
Write your senator today!

You can read details about all of this here - The Adoptive Families Action Alert: Help make the adoption tax credit permanent!.

In the United States there are more than half a million children in foster care, with more than 100,000 of them waiting to be adopted! Often the older a child is the less likely they are to become adopted. The rate of children who's lives become devastated as they "age out" of the system is horribly high. These children deserve a chance to have the home they are groomed for while in foster care, However the lack of adoptive families willing to adopt these older children often leaves them floundering in the (failing foster) system, Unless their foster parents are extremely charitable when they age out, they often end up without a home or penny to their name on their 18th or 21st birthday.This is often a struggle for the foster parents too as once a child ages out of their home their home is asked to take in more children needing foster care as there is simply a shortage of beds available in foster care too. While we were in training from the state for our upcoming adoption the trainers kept praising us all for our commitment to becoming foster and adoptive parents as they see first had the struggles and need for more families willing and able to do both. They often strongly and passionately asked us to spread the word and recruit other families to consider becoming foster, or foster adopt parents. Aside from the states urging (and I don't know of any state in the union where this isn't true.) scripture urges believers to this as well.

James 1:26-27 (English Standard Version)

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Even people of the world are starting to rise up and take notice that these children need their lives improved. Just this last week Rosie O'Donnell was on Geraldo Rivera's show on Fox News talking about her movie "America". I don't know much about the movie (or the book), and have not seen it, but many of the facts she mentioned on his show were ones that I agree more families need to be aware of. You can view the video clip of Rosie and Geraldo here. Please know that because of other views she expressed in this video I was hesitant to post this, but I think the first two thirds are a good message, and like I said, even people of the world are talking about this matter.

Finally for those of you on Facebook, there is a group for those of us who care about this issue; to keep abreast of information and keep track of the progress in regards to keeping an adoption tax credit. You can view and join the group here.