Jump to content

Adam & Beth

Forum eLite
  • Posts

    5,075
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by Adam & Beth

  1. Okay Brett & Traci, I have to ask as I'm eager to know.... What is Baby Girl Adam's Name?????
  2. That's how I felt too. Isn't it great!
  3. Continued prayers coming your way. Hope all is going well.

    Peace be with you.

  4. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE NEW FAMILIES! -Adam, Beth & Nathan
  5. Thanks. It's good to know someone finds some of my info helpful. Sometimes I'm full of useless knowledge Really though, Happy to help I too am very in touch with the financial side of things. While adoption process is worth the expense (knowing that our beautiful Son has come home to us ), it is nonetheless a Very expensive process IMO. Any avenues to help alleviate some of that financial burden are of great interest to me. I feel very blessed that the necessary resources came together in time for us to pursue adoption and that everything has worked out. Signed, A very blessed Dad
  6. Ah, good ol' IRS form 8839. I've been back and forth to that thing many many times. The instructions of it should help answer questions you might have and there are some good websites out there too to help. What helped me most was pulling out my copy of TurboTax Deluxe and going through the tutorial on the form. I am no expert on the subject, but do have experience with it. Always best to talk to a tax attorney / accountant for clarification. TURBOTAX did a very good job of processing the credit and providing all the information we needed. It was very helpful because it clarified what could and could not be processed including a Failed Adoption. It is my understanding that the adoption tax credit has NO stipulations regarding sex/gender/race etc. There are exclusions regarding international adoption (not to mention all kinds of other exclusions or offsets such as employer assistance). If I remember correctly, you cannot claim the credit for a failed international adoption attempt but you can for a failed Domestic adoption. The web quote below confirms that. Our failed placement in 2005-2006 was a full Anglo female. The credit was applied to our taxes. Though the only "official" site is the IRS.Gov site, there are some good websites on the topic. For instance, Check out http://tax-credit.adoption.com/
  7. First, let me say, I am no tax expert so for the best advice seek professional tax help. I use TurboTax every year and it is very helpful and we processed the tax credit a couple of years ago. It resulted in a refund. There are situations in which, when applied, the Credit will result in a Refund Check from the IRS. It is a complicated process and does take into account a lot of factors. It comes down to Credits vs Refunds which the IRS has stipulations and procedures for each. So, please make sure you follow the rules and I suggest using a good Tax preparation software package or have a qualified person submit your taxes. I will say that based on some additional factors we have this year with a failed Match and a successful placement, but which cannot finalize until next fiscal year, we will be seeing a tax professional to ensure we receive the maximum credit available to hopefully recoop some of the lost monies from the failed match and the monies spent with the successful adoption. The problem I have run into, is that a lot of people don't know the details of the credit very well. I had tax professionals telling me I could not claim a failed adoption. The IRS literature states very clearly that you can, but that if you have a successful adoption (of a different child) in that same calendar year, then you have to treat the 2 scenarios as 1 successful adoption. The dates of when things happened and are scheduled to happen make the credit filing a bit tricky. But, for $11,000 it is worth the time spent reviewing it IMO
  8. This is good information, but just as an FYI to those who may not be familiar with the Adoption Tax Credit and who might be counting on it to assist with the financial piece of adoption: It may be up to a Year or even longer AFTER taking placement before you are eligible to file for the tax credit. So, it can help recoop costs, but the tax credit monies will not be available to you when the bills are initially due (at time of placement). The tax credit is currently around $11,000 and has been going up almost a thousand dollars a year. There are no guarantees though that it will always be available and the amount can change from year to year.
  9. It's easy to 'yell' from my office chair -A
  10. It's times like that even though I probably wouldn't chime in, I'd be thinking: Lady!: I hope you're washing all your fruits and veggies to remove pesticides, those things can cause cancer I hope you're putting sun screen on the baby everytime they take a trip outside. UV light is bad for baby. I hope you're using 'safe' laundry detergents. Who knows about those chemicals? I hope you're not using too much anti-bacterial soap. That's bad. You'll Lower their disease resistance. I hope you're not giving your child too much natural sugar. Childhood obesity, diabetes Sheesh, I mean come on. Besides the person being rude, I doubt they avoid every 'questionable' thing in the world either. We are parents and make choices for our children, and generally (hopefully), parents are going to look out for the welfare of their child. So, bottom line to that lady is obviously "don't judge" and "don't cast the first stone".
  11. Please, Please, Please tell me that 'odd' (for lack of a better term at the moment) applications such as these arrive very rarely. While I respect everyone's right to decide what is or is not 'right' for them, hearing that people enter into the adoption process with preconcieved notions like this is a bit disturbing. Caffeine, really? What's next, no exposure artificial sweeteners? -A
  12. Congratulations and Happy Birthday to your Father! Wasn't sure if his last name is "J" so I'll stick with "Way to Go Elizabeth's Daddy!"
  13. Sorry, Adam. I only posted the first two paragraphs of that story. Here's the rest... Thanks John. Sorry, I didn't mean to be trouble, I was just curious.
  14. Did Stamos remarry after Rebecca Romijn (sp) or is he considering being a single parent? --anyone know?, merely curious. -A
  15. WELCOME AIDAN NICHOLAS! Congratulations Hallye and Peter!
  16. What's the name of this little Guy? (besides Bambino Calliente! )
  17. I had heard the the typical homestudy update runs about $500, but that was just hearsay, so I don't really know. Seeing the $200 quotes makes it sound like $500 may be on the high side. The extra money was worth it for us because we had used the agency for a while and were very comfortable with them. They'd bend over backwards for us if we needed it to get things done. Our social worker even called us this weekend just to check up on us to see how we were doing Our FULL homestudy ran us $1000 I think. -A
  18. Driving to my brother's house yesterday with Lily and Nathan in the back seat. I saw "Oh, darn" about something Lily says "That's not a nice word" Me: "Okay, what about 'shoot' " Lily: "No sir, that's not nice either Uncle Adam. GOD doesn't like that" Me: "Oh, so what Does GOD want me to say instead?" Lily: "Oh My Goodness!" Me: "You know Lily, I think you are right "
  19. Good idea. We'll feel that one out. May take a bit, but we'd love to see that. They DO love her and think highly of her, their fear just comes from our years of struggles to have a family.
  20. For some birthparents, the profile may be a first 'meeting' of the PIWs they will speak with. But for many who live farther away from San Antonio and thus haven't had the opportunity to meet one of the Abrazo folks in person yet, a phone call from a PIW is their introduction to a set of PIWs. When the profiles have to be mailed to a birthparent, it takes the mail or express delivery a day or two to arrive. During that time, Abrazo is typically actively setting up calls between the birthfamily and the PIWs. I know many of the birthmothers we spoke with were really surprised how fast the process starts once they've made their initial call to Abrazo. One or two have said "Wow, that was fast. I wasn't expecting to hear from you guys TODAY" So, don't be surprised if in more cases than not, you speak with a birthmother who has not yet received your profile. As I mentioned, for us, that was the case majority of the time. But never fear , in each case, the birthmother always eventually receives a copy of the profile(s) so that they can put a face with a voice So, all the work you are putting into your profile WILL go a long way in your relationships with birthfamilies. -A
  21. Wow, $200 is a great rate for that service.
  22. Our birthmother called while we had a lot of family over on Saturday. Beth and I went upstairs for a bit to talk with her. When we came down, there was a look of concern on some of their faces as if something was wrong. They were scared something had happened that would jeapordize our placement We calmly explained, NO, as we have said, this is an OPEN adoption relationship and we will be talking with "C" regularly. This is regularly! It had been a week or so since our last call. I know they are just trying to protect us, but I think it's going to take a while for them to get used to this idea that "C" will be in our lives as extended family FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They seemed to be more at ease when we said "No, all is well. She was just calling to chat, letting us know that she received and loved the pictures of Nathan, and just to say "HI!"." I love my family (well, this was actually Beth's side this time, but mine would probably act the same way) but they can WEAR YOU OUT!
  23. Just curious. . .what information were the BMs given if they weren't given your profile? I guess I'm curious as to what they based their decision on? Please don't take this wrong--from what I know you and Beth very much deserve to be selected Cathy Oh, no worries. No offense taken or anything. I too wondered the same thing when we started the birthparent call process. This is my perception of the process: As far as what information was the birthparent given? I don't think they got much information about us other than perhaps Abrazo advising them "you will be contacted by a couple of prospective adoptive couples who we feel may be the right fit for what you are looking for, based on what you've told us. You can talk to as many different couples as you wish, but we recommend talking to 3 different ones first so you get a good feel for how the process works and that you may find that one that just feels like "This is the right couple for me and my baby" ". Because our homestudy was already complete from our previous private adoption attempt, we actually got our first call 5 days after Orientation. We had barely even started putting together a profile. I was like "Hey, How did this call happen? They don't even have a profile from us". Then I remembered that once your homestudy is complete, you are eligible to get the calls because you can technically take placement should something happen fast. I think Elizabeth explained it well in her response above, which was the basic understanding I had of how the process works. So, your questions are natural. There were times that I thought, I wonder why I didn't get a call to talk with "Them" or did they not like my profile or why are things working out for couples in the new orientation groups and not for us, we've been waiting much longer ? The thing to remember is that the Right birthmother/birthparents will find you when the time is right. We can't rush these things which is hard because we all (PIWs) SO want to be parents...NOW! I have said it before, probably on this thread, but for ME the key to the profile was to be both Happy & Proud of our work (profile). If I felt good about it, that is all I could do and I just had to let nature take its course. Our baby would find his/her way home to us when the time is right. It's much easier to say that now as new parents, but it is the truth.
  24. That is interesting because of the roughly 12 birthmothers we spoke with during our adoption journey, only 3, maybe 4 had even seen our profile. We matched with "J" earlier this year without her even seeing our profile We did later get pictures to her and met her in person so she'd know who we are and what we looked like. But, I will say that our successful match with "C" later this year did start by her choosing 3 couples to speak with based on the profiles. I was happy ours was in there and that she felt comfortable with it. I agree that the pictures are worth MUCH more than the words for first impressions. Just my 2 cents Adam
  25. But the only way to stay "current" with your homestudy now based on Texas requirements to have an in home visit within 30 days of placement would be to pay for a homestudy update EVERY 30 days until placment occurred and then you still run the risk of it not being up to date (example: Say you update it on the 1st of every month and you get a call on the 30th that there is a BOG, well, placement wouldn't occur until say about the 3rd of the month and then technically you are 2 days beyond the 30 day limit ) I know that scenario is extreme, but that is just based on a BOG scenario. Since our agency charges $500 for a homestudy update, I know I'd wait and find a way to get it done when we knew about the BOG and not do a monthly update.... I was very happy with Abrazo's direction and help with this when our original homestudy expired and we knew we would be in need of an update. They encouraged us to have everything done except the last in-home visit so that it could be knocked out quickly in the event of a fast placement but it would keep us from incurring any undue expenditure in the meantime while we waited for the right match and baby to come along -A
×
×
  • Create New...