We need you!

Currently there is a federal tax credit for parents to help defer some of the huge cost associated with adoption. Basically, the year you bring your child home, you can claim the adoption expenses on your income taxes for that year and receive a credit in addition to a standard "dependant credit". Legislature is toying with the idea of doing away with this credit tax in December of 2010 unless our congressmen and women vote to keep this credit as a permanent incentive for adoptive parents. And not just an incentive, but a bit of a safety net for parents that would like to adopt, but find it financially impossible on their own. We need you help! You may think you are just one voice, but together we can shout! The bottom line is: This hurts foster children and children living in orphanages! Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a little more financial security in raising a child, exspecially in that first year of recovering from travel/adoption expenses and time off work, but in the end this just hurts children in an already defunct system.


This is what we are begging you to do, right now:

1- Read more about the act that would help this act from being repealed at The Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213



2- Send an e-mail to your U.S. Representative
Write your U.S. Representative (here is the link! Just do it!)

Here is my letter, it took me less than 3 minutes to do the whole process and I'm a really slow typer. You just punch in your zip code and it sends you a link to start typing! You can even crib my letter if you want.....

Dear (they even fill this in for you):

I am heartbroken to hear that the adoption credit for families is being considered for appeal (The Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, H.R. 213) Not only does this hurt prospective adoptive parents recover from the huge financial burden of adopting but ultimately this hurts children living in foster care and orphanages all around the world. The odds are already stacked against these precious children and I fear this decision would lessen the odds for these children finding their forever families. Of all the ways to save money and trim our spending, I doubt that robbing abused, neglected, and abandoned children of loving homes is the solution we are looking for. As a waiting adoptive parent, please echo my concerns in your fight to keep this credit available.

3- Copy and paste your letter into your e-mail to your U.S. Senator
Write your U.S. Senator (Come on people, do it now, don't wait "till tomorrow")

4- Take a minute to think about how all the children you just helped find their forever families and their future families catch a little financial break!!!!