The End of the Adoption Tax Credit?

The end of September was important to many of us who are prospective adoptive families, meaning we are in the middle of the adoption process but have not received a referral of a child.  That is because for anyone who is still waiting, seeing October 1st come means the last glimmer of hope passes that your family's adoption will be finalized in 2012.  That is painful on many levels, but to add 'insult to injury' so to speak, it may cost families like ours a lot of money.  We entered this process almost two years ago thinking it would be possible to finalize our adoption in 2011... 2012 was a given.  But as 2012 comes to a close, so does the adoption tax credit.

FAQs about the Adoption Tax Credit

A couple of weeks ago I wrote my congressman about HR 4373, asking him to support it.  Now that congress is out of session it is unclear what is going to happen, but I picked up this regarding what may happen: "We think that the chances of passing legislation that extends the adoption tax credit for some number of years or making it permanent are good because adoption and the adoption tax credit are popular on both sides of the aisle in Congress. It is most likely to happen as part of the passage of some form of the extension for the Bush era tax cuts or other major fiscal/debt/tax reform packages. It is highly unlikely that there will ever be a separate vote on the adoption tax credit, which is part of the reason why we have to try to build the co-sponsorship list now for bills like H.R. 4373 and S. 3616—so the support can be seen and pointed to when the future tax discussions take place.  And, while the chances of extending the Bush era tax cuts in some form are reasonably good, it will be affected by how the Congress decides to deal with the federal deficit and the debt crisis. Some want to extend all the Bush era tax cuts for everyone, some want to extend most of them, but only for families making less than $250,000 a year, some want to reform the tax code, with or without the Bush era tax cuts, and nearly everyone agrees that tax cuts or tax reform cannot be allowed to increase the national debt any further. The adoption tax credit is part of that big mix and, as of now, appears to be in good shape under most options." (From adoptiontaxcredit.org)

For adoptive families wanting to follow the progress of this legislation, join "Save the Adoption Tax Credit" on Facebook for updates.

Approved

Today we received our approval letter from the oldest private orphanage in Colombia, Casa de la Madre y el Nino.

The approval letter means that they have reviewed all of the information about our family (our pictures, our home study, our FBI fingerprints, our medicals, our psychological evaluations, etc) and they have agreed, "YES... we will refer a child to this family".

The orphanage director has assured our adoption agency that when they agree to work with a family they will refer a child to them within 12 months, so for the first time we feel we can officially share the news that a third child will be joining our family.  Although our US Central Immigration Approval was for a child 0-59 months, the casa's committee approved us for a 3 to 5 year-old child based on our stated preference for a toddler, and probably taking into consideration the ages of the two children already in our home.  When we receive the referral we will have approximately 60 days notice that we will be traveling to Colombia to live for 6-8 weeks in Bogota before we can bring our child home.

Wow.  I am overwhelmed that we know the city where our child resides.  I am overwhelmed that I have already missed so much of his life.  I am grieving for the losses he has already endured and will continue to endure when he leaves behind the country, people, smells and foods he is used to. We are so ready to love him.  Please, whether you say prayers or meditations or call on karma... we could use your thoughts and positive energy!  Thanks to our family and friends who have given support over the last eighteen months.  Hopefully in the next year we will finally bring our third child home.

Contentment With Huge Changes

Yesterday a new dossier for our family was mailed to COLOMBIA!  We are hopeful for the first time in many months. 

In March, 8 months after we had excitedly mailed our dossier to Honduras believing we would meet our 3rd child in the next year, we decided to switch countries.  This was a very difficult decision, particularly given that the waitlist in Honduras is finally starting to move again and we feel very attached to the people we have met in the process.  And essentially the last year of paperwork and waiting were for naught.  But after we weighed a million variables, our heart is back to Colombia where it started its journey. 

Now we wait while our dossier is translated and sent to one of three private orphanages (called casas), where we humbly hope we will be chosen to be matched with a child.  We are open to a healthy boy or girl, 0-59 months old.  The excitement surrounding our referral and who this child will be is unbearable.  We should be matched in the next 6-15 months; likely in the 9-12 month range.  While the circumstances that lead to adoption are usually not happy ones, we are grateful that this child will become a part of our lives. 

We hope our next post will be soon regarding an acceptance by the casa who will partner with us!

Gambling

Does Honduras hold our child?

The day Johnny and I made the decision to adopt, I felt a course was set to bring home a child sometime in the 18 months that followed.  We have proceeded forward in the innocence of that intent... telling friends the good news, allowing our children to share our excitement, painting our son's room.  We did not realize we were gambling, and we may or may not bring home a child.

The last couple of months we heard of delays that we thought might prolong our wait for a referral from the 6 months we were expecting to up to 12 more months.  And although that could still be a real possibility, the first wisps of fear have also woven into our minds regarding the risk we took by entering such a new program:  the delays could be indefinite.  Fellow Honduran PAPs, please do not think I know something.  I know nothing, like the rest of you.  But for other friends and family, this article in September was our first clue - the Secretary General and Director of the group in charge of adoptions were forced to step down and an investigation was begun.  The sum of the many more articles that have circulated since then, with workers on strike, pointed fingers, corruption and lost funds, etc. paint a grim picture.  Sure, some of it we can respect as cultural differences (striking is very common in Latin America), but it still leaves us with few guarantees.

The timing is our gamble.  We would love to bring home a child from Honduras.  But there are other countries with more stable adoption programs with wait times of 12-18 months.  If we start over now, we could still bring him home in the next 18 months.  Not ideal (we are so ready, now!), but doable.  If we wait 6 months, we take a gamble.  50% chance things will turn around and we will get a referral sooner from Honduras, and 50% chance (these are my statistics, folks, based on gut feeling) that we will learn the program is on hold and we have to move to another program.  But, oh yeah, that means we start the 18 more months wait at that point.  And we really can't. 

I truly do envy those families for whom a major life event, like adding a child to their family, does not need the same planning our family seems to require.  But big things, (like needing to eventually go back to work to put our kids through college!) preclude our family from being on hold for years on end.  When I was comparing country timelines at the beginning of our adoption decision, I actually had someone close to me say, "well maybe if a year or two difference in when he comes home is that important to you, you should not be doing this".  And yeah, I get it.  But then, I also don't.  Because no one presumes to question parents who plan the timing of their biological kids.  In families with two parents in professional careers, timing is all part of the balance of doing what is best for our kids.

We are not alone, or special, in this endeavor.  Many other families are struggling, weighed down with hope or despair, depending on the day, as they try to form their family.  We love the other adoptive families who have shared their stories and their waits with us.  We empathize with their heavy investments of emotion, time, and money into adoption.  We have invested $24,000 in this process so far.  We wish we had the financial surplus to not even worry about that part of the gamble, but it has not been without sacrifice.  Regardless, the possibility of this child is worth it to us.

Is there a child waiting for us?  Will we become parent and sister and brother to a child in 2012?  Or 2013?  Or will we lose our window?

Hurdle: Dossier Being Held While We Scurry For More Paperwork

So I just decided that there is no appropriate image for this update, since syringes and cringing children are nothing to smile about.  I felt sorry for our agency, having to deliver the news they dreaded telling us today:  "Your kids need to have lab tests done.  Blood, Urine, fecal".  I feel sorrier for myself having to tell my eight year-old daughter the news; she who still berates me for blood work we authorized when she was three.  She really despises needles.

Our dossier will be held, waiting for this update.  I am assuming it will take a month to get the tests completed and notarized, mail them to our agency, who will get them apostilled and forward them to Honduras.  There they will be translated and approved before being sent to IHNFA to join the rest of our paperwork.  It is hard to imagine exactly where the paperwork is, but I know, because we were too good and too fast at getting it all ready, that much of it will "expire" soon.

I feel like someone caught in quicksand, moving slowly through the motions, wondering if anyone will ever pull us safely up.  Where is our son?  I'd like him to know we bought him a train table this month.

Submission to IHNFA

Our dossier was submitted to IHNFA last Monday, October 3rd (yah!!!!), and then on October 5th our lawyer said she was going over to see them, to make sure the adoption office thought it all looked good and would not need any more revisions.  That was one week ago.

I delayed posting anything because I was dreaming of a headline that said "We are official!  The Secretary General has signed off on our dossier and given us a waitlist number!". 
I dream of this headline a lot :-) 

Last Thursday our adoption agency held their monthly conference call, which is a great time to catch up on the program and find out new news.  They had very good news for us...we knew the agency that controls adoptions had gone on strike, and that the Director and Secretary General were put on leave pending an investigation, and we thought there was a good chance the investigation would add 6 months to our timeline.  BUT, our agency says that an interim Secretary General is in place and signing paperwork.  However, none of the families we know whose dossiers are sitting on the interim SG's desk have been signed.  We will be relieved when we hear things are definitely moving.  Best of luck to the prospective adoptive families that are on that desk already (you know who you are!).  Hopefully this will be your week!

Expected Timeline

Our timeline can be seen by clicking "Adoption Timeline" in our header (I love looking at these from other families!) but the real question our friends keep asking is, “how much longer?”. 

Our adoption agency says we will receive a referral 6-12 months from the time our dossier is submitted to Honduras.  An adoption referral is when you get “THE call” where you are given a full profile, including pictures, of your child. 

Our agency is one of the best, most reputable in the U.S.,  and that is why we chose them.  However, only 10 adoptions were processed through Honduras in 2010.  Although Honduras says they are open to international adoption (learn more about the country and process here), and the experiences of many families in 2011 show that they are moving the process more quickly, there are a lot of families in the pipeline and it is a very “new” program.  There are only 5 agencies in the U.S. authorized to handle Honduran adoptions, which all must be processed through a government agency in Honduras called INFHA.  We are part of our adoption agency’s pilot program since they were just approved in 2011.  We were the 5^th family to “sign on” for the pilot program. 

When our agency visited INFHA, the officials told them they would expedite the applications of any families willing to adopt toddler age or older children, or siblings.  We have seen families who have only waited two months for a referral when they were open to a child up to the age of 4.  We are approved for a toddler boy, aged 24-43 months.  So once on the waiting list, we do not expect to wait more than 6 months for a referral.  But nothing is certain.  We can only hope.

After we receive the referral Johnny and I will travel to Honduras immediately.  We will stay for a week on that initial trip and will meet our son for the first time.  He will then move from the orphanage to a foster family to wait for a judge’s approval for the adoption.  3-5 months later we will return to the country with our two older children to stay for 4-6 weeks in Honduras.  Our son will live with us during this time while we finish the approvals and paperwork.

We can’t wait!!