Monday, January 30, 2012

10 Months Old

My posts are getting further apart. I guess this is for two reasons. One: that I have a very active 10 month old boy to look after. Two: that this blog is about our adoption journey and that is a part of our lives that is winding down. We have gone from prospective adoptive parents, to adoptive parents and now just just parents. Richard is 10 months old today. It is also his father's 47th Birthday.


In October, we were informed by our adoption agency that we could contact an adoption attorney and start the official adoption procedures. This included signing documents for the attorney so they would have access to the adoption agency's reports on our progress as a family. Not knowing how long any of this would take, we just waited. Then, in November, we got an email from our attorney's paralegal saying she had not received the agency's paperwork. Come to find out, someone at the agency had just filed away the letter requesting the home study, etc. After an email to them the agency got right back in line with sending the proper paperwork.

Fast forward through the holidays. We got word through the attorney that the paperwork for our adoption had been filed with the local circuit court. Hunter called them to see if we had to wait for the circuit court session in January. In this small town, the court only meets once every 3 months. But the staff assured us that the judge would get the paperwork and could sign off on it at anytime. Hunter checked with the clerk last week and they said that the judge had only signed one of the three documents sent. We checked with the attorney and she said this was absolutely right. So we have two more documents that need to go through the courts which include paperwork passing from the agency to the circuit court judge. I can't believe how slow it all happens.

In the mean time, Richard is getting so big. He has 8 teeth now. He has gone from crawling to walking around the furniture. He got a big boy haircut last week. He went from this


To this


And now he's doing this!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Adoption Tax Credit

I saw this forum post on Adoptive Families magazine's web site today. It's a link to a petition supporting not abolishing the adoption tax credit in 2013. I don't know everything about the adoption tax credit bill. I just know that as Hunter and I await the circuit court judge's signature on our attorney's request to finalize our adoption, this tax credit is something that will help us with our adoption costs. We were lucky, our agency bases its fee on each household's income. So, that was already a big help. But then we have attorney fees on top of that. It adds up.

Apparently the adoption tax credit will disappear in 2013. I think this is a terrible shame. There are so many ordinary families like us who could give a child a home. We're not all like "Brangelina"! Adoption is already filled with so many emotional up and downs. This tax credit can really make the difference for people out there who want to help a child.

I've installed a link on the side bar. If you care about adoption, please go and add your name to the petition.