The $13,000 adoption tax credit is back!

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- An adoption tax credit that brought huge refunds to many unsuspecting families last year is back.

Taxpayers can claim up to $13,360 for each child they have adopted in the past six years on their 2011 tax returns this year -- an increase of $190 from last year.

The credit has been around since 1997, but up until the 2010 tax year, it was always a non-refundable credit -- meaning it would offset any taxes owed, and anything that remained was carried over to the next tax year." READ MORE

Connie Britton Joins the Celebrity Adoption Club! - Celebuzz

"Connie Britton proved she has what it takes to be a mom — or at least act like one — with her role as Tammy Taylor in Friday Night Lights. Now, she’s an actual mom at the age of 44 after adopting a child!
Britton announced to People that she recently completed a 3-year-long process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. Her 9-month-old son, which she gave the name Yoby — a nickname and spin from his Ethiopian name of Eyob, has added infinite happiness to her life.
“I am thanking my lucky stars every day,” Britton told People. She said that the day Yoby officially became hers “was such a wonderful moment of completion … I thought I was going to collapse into a puddle of tears. I was just grinning from ear to ear.”
Congrats, Connie! Check out our gallery above of other celebrities who have gone the adoption route!"
http://www.celebuzz.com

National Adoption Month Presidential Proclamation

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

November 01, 2011

Presidential Proclamation -- National Adoption Month, 2011

NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH, 2011

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

As a Nation, one of our highest responsibilities is to ensure the health and well-being of our children.  With generous hearts and open minds, we strive to make sure all children grow up knowing they have a family that shares with them the warmth, security, and unconditional love that will help them succeed.  And yet, more than 100,000 children in America await this most basic support, and still more children abroad live without families.  During National Adoption Month, we celebrate the acts of compassion and love that unite children with adoptive families, and we rededicate ourselves to the essential task of providing all children with the comfort and safety of a permanent home.

The decision to adopt a child has brought profound joy and meaning into the lives of Americans across our country.  Parents are moved to adopt for reasons as unique and varied as the children they embrace, but they are unified by the remarkable grace of their acts.  Adoptive families come in all forms.  With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure that all qualified caregivers are given the opportunity to serve as adoptive parents, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or marital status.

My Administration remains steadfast in our support of adoptive families and children in need of homes.  Earlier this year, I signed the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act, which reauthorizes child welfare programs and makes new provisions to help reduce the amount of time young children are without permanent families.  I also signed the Healthy, Hunger¬-Free Kids Act to provide balanced, nutritious meals to all children in the foster care system.  Last year, during National Adoption Month, I signed the International Adoption Simplification Act, which removed unnecessary regulations and barriers to international adoption.  These efforts come in addition to the Adoption Tax Credit, which was extended and expanded as part of the Affordable Care Act to make adoption more accessible to American families.  Through these key pieces of legislation, my Administration is moving forward with our commitment to stand with youth in foster care and find new ways to encourage adoption.

Adoption has become a part of many Americans' lives and has contributed to the character of our Nation.  As parents and as family members, it is our task to do all we can to give our children the very best.  In caring for our youth and putting them before ourselves, we make a lasting investment not only in their future, but also in the prosperity and strength of our Nation in the years to come.  This month and throughout the year, let us recommit to ensuring every child is given the sustaining love of family, the assurance of a permanent home, and the supportive upbringing they deserve.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2011 as National Adoption Month.  I encourage all Americans to observe this month by answering the call to find homes for every child in America in need of a permanent and caring family, and to support the families who care for them.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.

BARACK OBAMA

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/01/presidential-proclamation-national-adoption-month-2011

NEW! Special Cut Adoption Pass Along Cards

Make a lasting impression with  special cut Adoption Pass Along Cards.  Choose from two new looks or request a customized card with a look made just for you.

Hugh Jackman reveals how adoption healed his pain of not having kids naturally

ZeeNews.com

Updated on Sunday, September 04, 2011, 17:59

"Melbourne: Actor Hugh Jackman was devastated when he and wife Deborra-Lee Furness learned that they couldn’t have their own children, but his heartbreak was finally cancelled out by the joys of fatherhood after adopting two kids."

“'It was painful,' the Daily Telegraph quoted Jackman as saying of the moment."

“'It’s not easy. You put a lot of time and effort into it, so it’s emotional. I think any parent can relate – trying to have children is wonderful and when you feel as though that’s not going to happen, there’s a certain anxiety that goes with it,' he said."

"Jackman explains how he and his wife, who he met on the set of ABC prison drama ‘Correlli’ in 1995, decided to have children naturally, and then adopt later in life, which couldn’t be realised."

“'We thought we’d have a kid or two biologically and then adopt. But when we decided we’d had enough of IVF, we went ahead with adoption,' he revealed."

“'From the moment we started the adoption process, all the anxiety went away. I don’t think of them [son Oscar, 11, and daughter Ava, 6] as adopted – they’re our children. Deb and I are believers in… I suppose you could call it destiny."

“'We feel things happened the way they are meant to. Obviously, biologically wasn’t the way we were meant to have children."

“'Now, as we go through life together, sure there are challenges, but everyone’s in the right place with the right people. It sounds airy-fairy, but it’s something we feel very deeply,' he added."

ANI

Read this article on ZeeNews.com

Image from WhyFame.com

New Barnyard Template

Check out the new Barnyard Theme adoption profile template!

How one town is changing adoption

Laurie Monsebraaten Social Justice Reporter, Toronto Star

"ST. THOMAS, ONT.—When the social worker told Jack VanNoord that she was taking away his 5 1/2-month-old foster child to be adopted by another family, the father of five had just one question for Children’s Aid:"

“'Are you running an adoption agency or are you acting in the best interests of the child?'”

"It didn’t seem right to VanNoord and his wife Coby to be uprooting the baby boy, whose inquisitive blue eyes and gummy smile had stolen their hearts in three short months with the family."

"But in the fall of 1986 in the rural community of St. Thomas, south of London, it was rare for foster families to adopt, especially if they already had five children. Childless couples or those with just one child were the priority. And you had to be on the adoption waiting list."

“'That all seemed rather silly to me,' recalls VanNoord. 'What about the child? This would be the second separation. How many times can a child go through that?'”

He immediately set to work researching the then-emerging theory of attachment between babies and caregivers. He hired a lawyer, sought the opinion of a noted London child psychologist and began his fight for the right to adopt baby Kris.

"Today the VanNoords’ “courageous stand” is credited for sparking Ontario’s first foster-to-adopt program, where the goal is to ensure every child who comes into care is moved only once. If the child can’t go back home, the foster parents automatically become the adoptive family."

"In Ontario, where up to 10,000 Crown wards languish in foster care and up to 80 per cent are forced to make the critical transition into adulthood without a forever family, some say the St. Thomas and Elgin County model is worth adopting province-wide."

“'Yes we’re small,' acknowledges Dawn Flegel, director of services since 2004 for Family and Children’s Services of St. Thomas and Elgin County, which serves as the Children’s Aid Society for the community of about 70,000."

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