Help Keep Adoption Affordable in America

Below is a letter to the House Committee on Ways and means regarding expanding and making permanent the Adoption Tax Credit. This tax credit is set to expire at the end of 2010. If you believe adoption is an important option for American citizens, and for orphans here and worldwide please write a letter to the committee. Feel free to cut and paste my letter below and email it to Chairman Rangel at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=10470

Dear Chairman Rangel and the House Committee on Ways and Means –

Regarding H.R.213 - Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009:To repeal the sunset of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 with respect to the expansion of the adoption credit and adoption assistance programs.

I believe it is very important for the House to expand the adoption credit and adoption assistance program beyond the year 2010. This adoption tax credit makes adoption a feasible option for American citizens both here in the US and also abroad with international adoption. The current fees associated with adoption are very high and without this tax credit adoption is out of reach of the average American.

Adoption domestically promotes additional options for women who have unintended pregnancies. It also creates a way for women to provide loving and caring homes for children they cannot otherwise provide for.

International adoption not only provides loving homes for orphans across the globe but also promotes international good will towards the American people in the countries where American citizens are allowed and encouraged to adopt. In Ethiopia, the citizens of Ethiopia are overwhelmingly positive about the United States of America and much of this is due to the amazing acts of American citizens to sacrifice their time, energy and finances to bring Ethiopian orphans home to a loving family in the United States.

The average family who adopts both domestically and internationally are not the “Angelina Jolies” or “Madonnas” of the world. They are average middle class American citizens who posses the amazing American spitit – that we can make a difference, we can change the world one person at a time. What most do not posses is the financial means to undergo an adoption that on average costs upwards of $25,000.

In these tough financial times it is tax credits like the Adoption Tax credit that continue to show the American people that our leaders, our government, care about their people, and values the caring and loving heart of the American People.

We ask that you please expand the Adoption Tax Credit beyond 2010 and make it a permanent tax credit.

Sincerely,
Kelly and Michael Little

We are on the list!

What an incredible and unexpected week! Mike and I had planned all along to fill out our paperwork for our Dossier and our I600A orphan visa this week, but we had no idea how close we were to getting onto the waiting list for our little angel. Apparently I was confused and thought that we needed to have our I600A back from the USCIS office before we could be added to the wait list, but I was told this week that with our Dossier complete we would be added to the list! So here we are, on the waitlist about 2 months earlier than we thought we would be.

We have been added to two lists :

1)The baby girl list in spot #25
2)The toddler girl list in spot #7

Though the toddler list is shorter, we have been told that the baby list has been moving much faster so it will be interesting to see where we end up. Mike is hoping for a toddler and I am really thrilled to go either way. I can't wait to see how the list moves. I created a chart for us to hang in our kitchen so David and Sam can watch our progress up the lists. Hopefully this will give them a more clear idea of when we will get our "baby sister" (as we call her around the house). Mike and I are so excited, we are just over the moon!

We will keep our blog updated to our progress in the list on top right hand side of the blog under the heading "Where are we on the waitlist?"

Priceless

8 Hours of Running around to various locations to get documents notarized
11 Documents Notarized
18 passport sized photos printed
1 juvenile passport filed (for David)
1 - I600A Immigration form mailed to Department of Homeland Security
4 Notarized documents mailed to the Colorado Secretary of State to be certified
1 Dossier folder mailed to our adoption agency
1 Moody FedEx manager that made me feel less than confident that any of this stuff will arrive at their locations
2 Cranky Children
3 Temper Tantrums
2 Exhausted Parents
________
Total cost = $ crazy number of fees

Being done with majority of our adoption paperwork = PRICELESS

Lets just hope it was all done correctly!