BDP21

How wonderful! I'm sure it meant a lot to Stacy and David and how exciting for the kids to be able to show off :-)

Welcome baby Harrison! Congratulations Jennifer and Shawn! Prayers for all who love this little guy.

Congratulations Cindy and Andy! Prayers for all as this family comes together!

Congratulations to this new family! What a beautiful story of families coming together to be one!

What a wonderful Easter blessing! Prayers for all as they join together to become family to each other.

So heartbreaking! Prayers for this family. I just can't imagine.

Congratulations to all who love this little girl! What a blessing to have such a big, wonderful family waiting for her!

We chose our church before beginning our adoption journey but it was one part of our lives that actually made us even more comfortable with our decision to be open to any child who needed us because there is such great diversity on all levels - there are several adoptive families, many mixed race families, special ministry/outreach to those with disabilities, it has a flourishing Spanish community (so has several bilingual services on special occasions) and is a historically African American parish. We drive about a half hour in towards the city every weekend because it is such a wonderful community. Everyone has completely embraced Joseph and both the priests ask all the time how he's doing. We are so thankful we found this community.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but it looks like Melissa has it covered, as usual The link she gave you spells everything out. Here's the direct link to the form that we sent in in September - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7a.pdf. When we sent the form off, we just included a copy of the placement agreement we received from Abrazo on placement day. That seemed to work just fine. There were no hiccups, just a normal wait time of several weeks to get the number back in the mail. If I can help with any more detail, please just ask.

Your accountant will be able to clarify this, but because some of your expenses were incurred in 2010, you can actually apply for your tax credit now (that is,if things haven't changed since we did this -- we were advised that we should go ahead and apply and not wait until the following year). Our situation was similar to yours - we went to orientation in 2008, took placement of Hugo in 2009, and finalized in 2010. But all of our expenses from 2008 (agency fees, orientation, travel expenses, escrow expenses, etc) added up to just shy of the credit amount, so we filed for the credit on our 2009 taxes (in 2010 - BEFORE we finalized) and got it, no problem. Then we filed for the remaining amount of the credit on our 2010 taxes, after we finalized. Just seemed like if we could get a chunk of the credit a year earlier, why wait? Anyway, hope this makes sense and hope your accountant is helpful! This is what we're planning to do, too. We applied for an adoption tax id number for Joseph as soon as we got back home from Texas and received it sometime in December, so we should be good to go.

Happy 3rd birthday to Sloane! It's so wonderful to hear about her growing up surrounded by ALL of her family!

Congratulations Sara & Andrew! Welcome to the world little Gavin! Prayers for all those who so love this precious boy!

We used Skype to introduce Joseph to my parents and Jim's mom while we were in Texas waiting for ICPC. It was wonderful! We called my mom virtually every day and Joseph really recognized her voice by the time we returned home a week later - amazing! After following Jocelyn's story, I was hoping to be able to use it with our birthfamily, too, but unfortunately they do not have the resources to do it. I'm hopeful that one day in the future we'll be able to use it with them, too. I think it can really be a great bridge across the miles. It certainly has been for Jim's mom who lives 2000 miles away.

I've got tears in my eyes, too. So happy for Darshan, Charu, Krish, and A and D that they all found each other. Continued prayers for all for health and happiness in 2012!

Congratulations Ben, Dawn, and Declan! Welcome to your baby Joseph!

Congratulations to Patty and Todd! Welcome to little Alejandro! Prayers for all who love this little one.

Well said, Jada. I was taken aback by those same statements. I can't imagine suggesting someone to be called a birth WOMAN - doesn't make any sense and certainly does not give the respect that birth/first mothers so rightly deserve. And to frown on saying reunion?!? I'd never heard that before and I can't imagine why that would be negative.

Congratulations to Leah & Kevin and all those who love this precious little boy!

Congratulations, Dannette and Chris and all those who love the beautiful boy Christo!

Congrats to this new family of 3! Welcome to the world Thomas!