Adoption Seminar

Last Sunday we took a 2-1/2 drive to attend an adoption seminar about financing an adoption for under $15K. It was amazing and well worth the drive. We learned a ton of new information. I have been meaning to post about it, but life was crazy last week. I want to share some of the notes from the class; I want to do anything I can to help others adopt.

1 - The tax credit is $12K for families who have adopted. I've had this explained to me several times, but some how Kelly explained it so we could understand it. I never understood if you got the money back or not.
Let me see if I can explain it... For up to 5 years who can collect back on your adoption amount, but you can only collect as much as you pay in taxes that year. For example: Our adoption cost $10,000 total. The first year we paid $4,000 in taxes. We get that $4,000 back that year and our new balance is $6,000. The next year we pay $4,000 in taxes so we get another $4,000 back and that leaves us with a new balance on our adoption fund of $2,000. The 3rd year, we pay another $4,000 in taxes, but we only $2,000 back because that is the balance of the adoption. I hope that makes since to every one! I have had this explained to me a dozen times and I never understood it until now!

2- Pretend like the child is already here. We need to buy diapers, formula and day care (just to name a few things). So we figure up how much that would cost and then put it into our adoption fund. This helps in two ways. First, we are saving even more money towards our child and secondly, we are learning to live on a small income by pretending to spend the money now that we will have to spend when the baby arrives. We are struggling to do this, but we feel that paying for Josh's education is as just a worthy cause.

3- Adoption through the Foster Care System is under $1K. I have already mentioned why we don't think Foster Care is right for us right now. It is something I want to do someday, but now is not the right time for us. And I feel really bad feeling that way, because there is thousands of children in the foster care system right now that need permanent homes. But I stand by our decision for two big reasons. One, I really want to start my parenthood in the baby stage. I want a baby as young as I can get. Two, I couldn't deal with the heartache of them going back to their families. The main purpose of Foster Care is to help the family get back together. These families are giving a hundred different chances to get their lives back in order so they can get their children back. I am not ready to love a child only to have to let them go.

4- Special Needs is totally different that what I pictured. The lady who taught this class has adopted several special needs children. For most of those children they just needed a simple 15 minutes surgery and then they were fine. A few website to check out are www.spence-chapin.org, www.chask.org and www.cradle.org. A lot of these children can be adopted for under $6K

5-There are several agencies that have reduced fees or grants attached to their waiting children. These children can be adopted for $6K -15K. Their websites are: www.wacap.org, www.holtintl.org, www.adoptionadvocates.org.

6- A few other websites that have children with grants already attached to each child: www.brittanyshope.org, www.untilallhavehomes.org, www.reecesrainbow.org, www.chancesbychoice.org, www.hivtohome.org.

*I hope all these websites work. I didn't check the links as I typed them in.

Kelly talked about several other things. If you want to learn more she teaches the class, I believe, about once a month. If you would like to get in contact with her just leave me a comment and I will email you her email address. She only charges $10 for the class and all the money is donated to an adoption cause. She also teaches other classes like just an Adopting from Africa or other countries. She lives in Layton and the class we went to was on a Sunday evening. We didn't get home until super late that night, but it was well worth it and we hope to attend other classes in the future. Be prepared - she has homework! With the class we attended she has a mandatory reading of two books: There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Greene and One Tattered Angel by Blaine M. Yorgason.