Going Away: Adoption Tax Credit

Farewell

Over the last nine months, I have been involved in one of the greatest blessings of my life. I have worked behind the scenes and as a blogger for Give1Save1, helping dozens of families offset the immense costs of providing homes and new futures to orphans around the world.

But I’ve decided to take a leave of absence from my post here on Give1 to tackle some other projects. And in leaving, I have a shameless request. I want a going away present. And not just any going away present…I want you to give me about $13,000 in support of my adoption…in fact, I want you to give every American adopting that much, too. 

“What did she just say?” Yep. I’m serious.

Adoption Tax Credit 

I want you to help pass the Adoption Tax Credit. When my husband and I first considered adoption, the Adoption Tax Credit was a giant piece of the financial puzzle for us. At the time, we figured our adoption would easily be finalized in time to take advantage of the credit. Then the “slowdown” came in Ethiopian adoptions. Then we heard that that tax credit was due to be “sunset” at the end of 2012. Wow…not good news. This meant that the $13,000 we were counting on to reimburse some of the debt we were taking on for this process was probably not an option anymore. A very big deal for us…and thousands more families.

For many years, the Adoption Tax Credit has helped 100,000 families annually to offset the costs of adoption, both domestically and internationally. It has made the difference for countless families to provide homes to foster children and the world’s many, many orphans.

Source: Hope for Orphans

On the fence for political reasons? I hear you. I am proud to be this group’s “token liberal” (a term I’ve given to myself), and I’m not a big fan of tax breaks when our country is at war or is facing such an immense deficit. But without this tax credit, fewer (probably dramatically fewer) families will be able to afford adoption. Fewer adoptions mean more children in “the system” (a vast majority of the people adopting in the US adopt domestically). More kids in foster care means more tax dollars needed to support that system of care. Whether we devote tax dollars directly to foster care or through the adoption tax credit, orphans need resources. They need us.

What You Can Do for Orphans 

As it currently stands, the Adoption Tax Credit has a 1 percent chance of passing as legislation. So what can you do about it? Give us 5 minutes and call your Representative today and urge that he or she co-sponsor the bipartisan bill H.R. 4373, the Making Adoption Affordable Act.

You can reach your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives by calling the U.S. Capitol Operator at 202-225-3121 and asking for your Representative's office. If you don't know your Representative's name, click here and enter your zip code in the box provided.

Here is the message we would ask that you give to your Representative:

•                I am a constituent in your district and the adoption tax credit is important to me. (It matters to me because...)

•                I urge the Representative to become a co-sponsor of The Making Adoption Affordable Act, H.R. 4373.

•                If Congress does not act, the credit as we now know it will expire in December, 2012.

•                H.R. 4373 is bipartisan and it supports all types of adoptions (domestic private, foster care, and international adoptions).

•                This tax credit has made adoption a more viable option for many parents who might not otherwise have been able to afford adoption, allowing them to provide children with loving, permanent families.

•                Thank you for your support of H.R. 4373.

Finally, help us spread the word about this important issue. If you want to learn more about the adoption tax credit, click here. 

Also, "like" the Save the Adoption Tax Credit on Facebook.  

With Love... 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading this and my other weekly posts on this blog. You have enriched me spiritually and personally. You gave me a purpose so much greater than I could have dreamed when I started this adoption journey.

Keep giving. 

Growin' Green

Colorado has had some absolutely gorgeous weather recently, although it's not completely out of the ordinary for us here in foothills of the Rockies. Did you know Colorado boasts more than 300 days of sunshine per year? I think people have this misconception that it's cold and snowy all.the.time here. It's not, really. Of course it snows some, but it doesn't hang around long except in the mountains which makes for our great snowboarding/skiing conditions. Okay, now I'm just bragging on Colorado's weather, but I invite you to come check it out for yourself :)

Anyway, back to the point: the beautiful, warm weather. It can easily be said that I have a thumb that is whatever the opposite color of green is. The anti-green, if you will. Fortunately, my family doesn't share the same trait, so my mom came into town last summer and planted us up some pretty awesome gardens. One of my favorites, though, is the vegetable garden. Our vegetable garden isn't huge, but it sits in a corner by our flagstone patio and it was so fun to eat what we grew! It was like really enjoying the fruits of our (I use the our term loosely, as I've already shared that my mom did most of the work) labor. Since it's been in the 70s lately, we've been clearing out and cleaning up the beds and have enjoyed watching the new green buds popping up - turns out I didn't kill everything over the winter.

I read this article recently written by a woman who views her vegetable garden as more than just a novelty. It's a way for her to save money on her grocery bill! I think it's pretty safe to say many of us watch our budgets more closely these days, so it just seems natural to add a bit of a hobby in gardening as a way to save the dollars. So here's what she said: think about the veggies that are most expensive in your region. For us, peppers always seem to put us out a pretty penny, and we really love using them in our cooking. Last year, we also grew tomatoes. While it was kind of fun because the tomato plants produce a lot, we don't actually eat tomatoes and the plant got so big, it seemed like it was overshadowing everything else. They might not make the cut this year. Other things that are on the list to be home grown this year? Asparagus, onions, green beans. We'll probably add a few more and we're looking forward to enjoying our own fresh food!

What would you all plant in your own vegetable garden? Any secret tips for those of us just starting out?

Doll Drives

Calling all crafty folks! I am so pumped about this. I get to make some more dolls! I'm such a freak about these tiny dolls! Anyhoo, there is a drive for dolls headed to Uganda and Rwanda. Make as many as you can!

There is a cool little blog called Dolly Donations that collects dolls year round and delivers them to kids all over the globe. They even have free patterns if you need one.  We all know what a new toy can do for a kid, right? Let's make some kids smile.



If you can sew up some dolls, pop over here for directions on where to send them. This batch is due by the end of this summer. Plenty of time to get started. I'll show you mine as they get done.

We Want to Hear From You

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re scooching over on the adoption couch (so to speak) to make room for more families here on Give1. We started by supporting adoptions from Africa, and now we’re adding families adopting from Asia and Haiti. How exciting! That means more feel-good stories to follow, more reasons to donate $1 a week (or $3), and more reasons to subscribe to Give1 via email so you don’t miss anything!



I’ve always said that Give1 is like Daily Candy for the soul. One of the first things that drew me to Give1 as a reader was that it combined all the things I love: adoption, inspiration, parenting, do-good stuff, fashion… (Ok, I’m no fashionista, but I love that Beth gave me some great alternatives to the fleeces I threw on…did I just admit that?)

But since we’re growing, we want to hear from you. What do you love about Give1? And what do YOU want to read about from this blog? Do you want to see more recipes, more home décor ideas, more parenting solutions, more stories from families, more adoption-specific information for people starting or already in the process, more biblical inspiration? Leave us a comment and help us make Give1 your favorite go-to site.

This Totally Has Nothing to do with Adoption.

Sorry if that disappoints. Congrats if you're saying, "finally". :)





I arrived a tad late to the Project Life party. Like a year late or something, but I'm kind of slow on trends. But I'm with it now. Thanks, Pinterest. Let me be honest and I hope I'm not insulting here, but I've never been a huge scrapbook fan. I can't seem to create something cool out of nothing, and the task of dressing up a picture and journaling and layering and all that is a little daunting to me. But Project Life is a bit different.





You get a big binder and some of these page protectors and you don't have to fill a giant space, you fill a pocket. At first I only did pictures. Then I started doing a little journaling. Nothing fancy for me yet. I started out buying a starter kit, but never used it. I found that mine feels alot like me and so my paper choices are just a reflection of that.



The point is to document your daily life as it is, not always the super glamorous bits, but the daily. We have a lot of just chilling, playing, my art girls, homeschool, cooking, etc.





Anyhoo, I just wanted to share. I LOVE this little pet project of mine and I just wanted to share. Here's some links that you might want to check out.

Buy Project Life kit - You don't have to go this route, but this is the creator of PL and she's got some good basic stuff. I bought this binder (though now I totally wish I'd done a black leather) and these pages. You can also just get variations of them at Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

Inspiration... {instagrams + vellum}  {artistic layering}  {awesome journaling idea}

Free Printables {quirky cute} {days of the week stamps} {super bright and fun}

Not Free But Awesome {check box cards} {vol 25} {my favorites that i use all the time}

5 Minutes + $.00 = Big Impact

Wanna do something HUGE to help thousands of families afford adoption? It’ll take five minutes of your time. And it won’t cost you a penny. Seriously.

Are you in?

Then help Give1Save1 get the Adoption Tax Credit extended! For adoptions finalized in 2012 and before, the US Government was actually a big help to adopting families. Many families were eligible for around $12,000 in tax assistance to offset the immense costs of adoption. While Obama’s healthcare reform extended and enhanced the Adoption Tax Credit, it is set to be dramatically reduced for adoptions finalized in 2013 and beyond.

American World Adoption has put together a convenient advocacy kit; please click here. The article includes links to contact your local lawmakers, and it includes links to sample phone scripts and letters to email to your representatives. For more information about the Adoption Tax Credit, click here.

Seriously, contacting Congress will take just five minutes of your time. I did it, and I even got lovely emails back from some of them! This is a bipartisan issue we can all band together to support. Thousands of families, including the wonderful people we meet each week on Give1Save1, are depending on this tax incentive to help make adoption possible. More than that, thousands of the world’s orphans are counting us to remove the hurdles that are blocking their futures.



Join us. Contact Congress. Spread the word.

(Can I get a "God Bless America?")

Let's Have a Garage Sale!

It’s almost time for Spring cleaning! And wouldn’t it be great if you could take all those garbage bags and boxes full of excess (that you finally realize you never did and still don’t need) and do something really great with it!? How about a good ol’ fashioned garage sale…for orphans?

We loved the idea when Jen Hatmaker suggested it in her recent blog post. So here’s the deal:

• We’re asking you to clean house. Start piling up all your previously loved items that you and your family have outgrown. Better yet, ask your friends for their stuff, too. (Remember, we're helping orphans. Don't by shy.)


• Next month, we want you to join us for a big Garage Sale for Orphans. We’ll tell you more about it soon…but it’ll be fabulous.


• All the money we raise will go to a really great organization called H.E.L.P. (Help Eliminate Local Poverty). Their mission is “To be a global tribe dedicated to ending extreme poverty by helping to rescue orphans, restore their hope and renew their communities.”

[caption id="attachment_1646" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is where 30 orphans lived in Port-au-Prince before H.E.L.P. partners built an orphanage."][/caption]

Our goal is to help Jen Hatmaker raise $6,000 to build a safe home in Haiti. This home will be built for orphans who are close to aging out of the system. Often, these orphans are exploited and targeted for sex and labor trafficking in the Dominican Republic. H.E.L.P. builds houses close to the Dominican border to help give these orphans a better future.

[caption id="attachment_1647" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Orphans in Haiti"][/caption]

As H.E.L.P. explains, “Each home will have an overseer, or house mom/dad, potentially a widow. We hope to create a family style orphan care. Our local leader in Haiti will oversee the entire project. The kids will be sponsored, so they will get food, water, clothing, and will also be able to attend school. Once we rescue a child, we will raise that child until they graduate college or trade school, so they can then take care of their own families."

Pretty great stuff. Even better, you can be confident that your financial support is actually going to help the kids. H.E.L.P. uses 85 percent of its donations for the actual work of providing these homes. (Just 15 percent is used to spread the word.)

So will you help us help H.E.L.P.? (Best sentence I've ever written.) Join us for a big Garage Sale for Orphans by clearing out the clutter in your house. With it, we can do some amazing things for kids in Haiti.

Stay tuned for details…better yet, subscribe to Give1Save1 via email so you don't miss any Give1 goodness!

 

A New Project

Good morning, all! I hope you're doing well this week.

I wanted to tell you about something new that we're doing. You know how every few months or so we do a project? Well, now we'll just always have a project going on. It'll be something that has to do with orphan care. That's kind of our thing. So let me tell you a little about or current project. This is Emily Barton.



She has impressed me like crazy. Emily is fundraising to be able to go on a mission trip to Uganda this summer. She'll be spending a month there. Half of her time will be spent teaching abstinence to students her age, which is actually a crucial ministry everywhere. The rest of the time she'll be living and sharing the gospel in a camp with orphans and former child soldiers. I do think it's bold and brave to even do such a thing at all. I'm particularly taken with how effective she may be there just because of her willingness to go now. But it's not just that, either. She's been so responsible fundraising and keeping people informed. She has set up a Facebook page for her mission trip. In even doing that she's ministering to her friends stateside. She has been selling artwork, bracelets, and Tshirts in her Ordinary Hero shop. She is working so hard to get there! Really busting it! I would be honored to pick up the slack and help this girl do what she's been called to do.

Remember Katie? This is exactly what she did at this age, and look at the impact in Uganda she has made. Heck, look at the impact she has made everywhere! If she's going to be the hands and feet over there, we can help by being the... checkbook? Ok, I'm not fantastic at analogies, but you get my drift. My thought is that these people need to be reached and I'm not in a place to physically reach them myself right now. But if there is someone willing and able, I can at least help put a few of the dollars that God has put in my care towards spreading the Good News. That's the whole point, right? What's a better way to spend His money? I can't think of any. So if you'd like to donate to Emily's mission trip you can do so here. I'm sorry to bug you for another dollar. It's just that the more I spend on God's purposes the more I want opportunities to do it again. So maybe it's the same for you. :)

"Operation Random Christmas Blessing"

Baron Batch of the Pittsburgh Steelers loves his friends and family…but he’s not getting them Christmas presents this year. Instead, he’s making Christmas merry and bright for the Knight family, our Give1 family of the week...a family he's never met.




“I guess the idea of buying material things for people that have everything that they need just was heavy on my heart, especially after being over seas doing mission work,” said Batch. “Thinking about what the amount of money I would spend on all of my gifts could do for someone else that really needed it, I wanted to do something randomly good for someone else.”

So instead of buying all the gifts he had waiting in online shopping carts, he added up the total. He decided he would donate that money instead…but to whom? Here’s what God did to help Baron:

• Monday, Baron had coffee with a teammate who mentioned he and his wife were thinking about adopting.


• Baron decided he would support an adoption.


• Baron walked home and prayed, “God just please bring a family to me that needs a financial blessing so this all works out.”


• He got home, checked Facebook, and found a message from a friend from high school. This friend was asking people to support the Knights this week on Give1Save1 so they can bring their adorable Emme home from Ethiopia.


• Baron smiled and said, “God, you are too good.”

Baron told us, “God let me know I was doing the right thing. He couldn’t have made it more obvious.”

To get more people involved in what he calls “Operation Random Christmas Blessing”, he is asking people to follow him on Twitter. For every follower he gets this week and until Christmas, he will donate 25 cents, up to the amount he had pledged from all those online shopping carts that are now empty. “And no I’m not going to tell you guys how much that amount was until after Christmas day, so it will kind of be like a Christmas present to all of you as well! All I will say is that if we meet this goal it’s going to be a huge blessing to an awesome family that I have never met!”

The fun twist in this story is that Operation Random Christmas Blessing turned out to be not so random after all. As God would have it, Baron and the Knight family are all from Midland, Texas. And just as Baron came up with this idea, then committed to supporting an adoption, this just happened to be the Knights’ week on Give1, which is what prompted that Facebook message…(Anyone else get chills?)

Baron said he’s gotten more joy than he ever expected from this project already. “I thought I was giving the blessing, but I’m the one who has been blessed this week. People are sending me heartfelt messages and sharing their stories. It’s been a blessing.” He said he learned unexpected lessons, too. “I learned to listen to my heart and follow through on those tugs at my spirit. It has strengthened my faith.”

I asked Baron what his friends and family thought about this challenge, given that they wouldn’t be getting presents from him. He laughed and said, “I don’t think my family knows!”

When he started this challenge, Baron had 14,375 followers on Twitter. As I write this, he is up to 15,212…so his commitment is now over $200! (And we still have more than a week to go until Christmas!)

Do I even need to ask you what to do next? Follow Baron Batch on Twitter! It won’t cost you a penny…just his. Or join Baron’s giving this Christmas season and donate to the Knight family if you haven’t already.

Baron, we wish you a very merry Christmas.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/31864659 w=400&h=225]

Welcome to my site! from baron batch on Vimeo.

Inspiring Kids to Give

Your giving this week for the Mortellite family has been truly awesome. You have shown that people can make a huge difference in the lives of others, and we have been so inspired watching you lift up this family and care for orphans.

So how can such wonderfully giving grown-ups inspire their kids to have that giving spirit, too? Here are some fun ideas:

• Lead by example and show your kids how to live a giving life. Volunteer and bring your kids if it's appropriate. Or choose a family cause and stay active.


• Before (or maybe after) they rip into their Christmas presents, ask your kids to gather up old clothes and toys they don’t use anymore. Bring the kids with you to donate the items to the local thrift store.


• Pick an Angel from the Salvation Army tree, and have your kids help you pick out presents. Be sure to tell your kiddos how great it is to give to others. (And maybe you could take them to see Santa after you drop the gifts off at the Mall.)


• After learning that some kids don't get enough to eat, my friend’s three-year-old son started "Pennies for Parker" to buy food for the local food pantry. He raised more than $300 (with the help of mom and dad) by collecting change from friends and neighbors. (That story still warms my heart.)


• Or try something simple, like Christmas gifts. Help your kids pick out small Christmas presents for each other (or Mom and Dad). They’ll be beaming on Christmas morning when they see the joy giving can bring.


• Start a new family tradition...with Kiva! Kiva.org is a great site that allows people to become microlenders. Your family can browse projects around the world and select one to fund. And as "microfinance" would suggest, you can invest a small amount of money (even $25) to make a big impact. The intent is that recipients will pay back the microloan you provide, so you can reinvest that money in another project, and then another, etc. This giving activity also serves as a great business lesson for your older kids.

For more ideas or to make giving a central part of your family, check out these neat books:

             

- Lindsay

New week, new project

UPDATE: Hew's our running total for the week. So far we're at $206!!!



Hey ladies,

It's no secret that I'm a big Noonday Collection fan. Though I will always encourage you to shop there, that is not the focus this particular week. It's our Project Week, and Noonday is doing something so cool that we are going to help them if that's alright with you. Noonday normally sells jewelry and a few home goods, but they are now opening a new line of products. Ten women will now be attending sewing school to learn to make new products for Noonday. And I'd love to sponsor at least one of them.

So we're starting out by sponsoring Asha. She's a 28 year old widow. She has 2 biological children and has also taken in her sister's children when she died. We need at least $180. That's easy peasy for us, right?! Allowing Asha to learn how to sew will teach her a skill that she can use for income all her life. Want to know why work matters (alot)? You must read this post. So, let's send Asha to school, give her a chance, and give those sweet little bodies a life that they deserve. Donate just this week by hitting the red donate button on the top right hand side. OR join the Dollar Mob so you never miss the opportunity to bless a family adopting from Africa or a beautiful project like this.

The Future You Are Dreaming.

Buenos dias, ladies. Happy Friday! Well, we're wrapping up another week here on Give1Save1. If you haven't had time to give to the new school in Ethiopia, please do. It's just a tiny dollar and less than a minute of your time. Imagine how many children will have a safe place to be, food in their bellies, and a chance at life once this school is constructed. But the true fact of the matter is that it's going to take dollars to put a building in. And dollars to hire caring teachers and cooks. The Good Book says that where our treasure is is where our heart is. Let's show those kids that our hearts are with them and send a bit of our treasure over their way.

new week, new cause

Hey guys,

Time to gear up for a new week! This week we're supporting our project of the month, Awake and Alive. Let me tell you a little about what Awake and Alive is doing for orphans. Danielle and Jolene are two mamas who have both adopted from Ethiopia. While they were there they really developed a heart for the children who weren't in the orphanages. Not all of the children don't have parents. Some parents are sick and the children have to lead the household.  Some are left home while their single mothers make a living collecting and selling sticks. They are gone for up to seventeen hours a day and those babies are alone. Sometimes very small children caring for infants. There's no one to watch out for them. This village is so poor it is thought to be cursed, so even the government won't offer any assistance. Awake and Alive is a nonprofit founded by Danielle and Jolene, two moms just like us. And they are opening a school there in September of 2012. Education is the key ticket out of extreme poverty. We all know that. But this school is going to provide much more than that. It will be a safe place for the children to be. A place with safe adults and hot meals. I want to be a part of making this happen! Don't you?

Give to Awake and Alive right here. It's their blog. Just look on the right hand side and you'll see the donate button. Sorry about the extra click, but it's easy peasy and I'm working on getting the direct Paypal code. I'm just super slow this Monday morning! My bad!

little things.

word. i bet the kids at the noel orphanage are really happy about that little thing you did. that dollar. it's big for them. when combined with your friends' dollars and your neighbors' dollars and all those strangers' dollars... it gets big and solves a big problem. so thanks. one more day left on the giveaway. get in on that!

sweet sleep: our first project!

hey guys! i hope you had a good weekend. so let me tell you about a few things we have going on. two new things:

1. now you can officially join the Dollar Mob and make sure your dollar makes it's way over here every week (even if you don't). i know not everyone wants to read about africa and adoption all day, but you still want to play a part. or maybe you just don't get online all the time. or whatever. i know how it is. but if you join the Dollar Mob over there on your right hand side of the screen, $1 will come out of your paypal account each week and go to the family or project of the week.

2. so now that we're rolling i'd like to introduce you to our first project. we'll be doing one a month. so now you can expect $1 a week to go to a family adopting a baby, an older child, siblings, and a project. so there we go. ready to meet our first project? me too. jenn and chris have been waiting and waiting for their referral for their baby girl. but while they wait they're never  quite content to just chill. these guys are ON all the time. they just got back from a mission trip and have their hearts set on a particular orphanage, the Noel orphanage. right now their greatest need is beds. i'll let jenn take over:



Every night, there are children who lay their heads down to sleep on the ground, children who curl up on old, dirty mattresses, children who sleep with multiple other children on small mattresses. Most children living in orphanages do not have even the smallest amount of space that belongs to them, a bed. Sleeping on a sagging or misshapen mattress adds tension to a child’s joints because their bodies rest on the mattress for hours at a time. These injuries to their bodies only make them weaker. Old mattresses or scraps of foam are breeding grounds for bed bugs and allergens that contribute to startling increases in respiratory diseases, including asthma as well as rhinitis, eczema and bed bug bites. When children continuously do not get enough sleep it affects their health, makes them tired during the day, hinders their ability to do well at school and leaves them more prone to disease. (Info from Sweet Sleep)
In Proverbs 3:24, we are promised: “When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet.” That promise is not only for you and me, but also for these little ones. He loves them, He wants them to lay down at night knowing that they are loved and protected, that someone cared enough to ensure that they would have sweet sleep. My next few blog posts are going to be about a place in Rwanda that has completely captured my heart, the Noel Orphanage, which is home to over 600 children. Many of these children sleep 2 and 3 to a bed. Right now, Noel needs 50 new bunk beds for the girls and 20 new cots for the toddlers. Each bunk bed cost $135 and each toddler cot cost $65. (pulled from jenn's blog, pure and lasting.)

ok, beth again. i think we can at least come through for a couple of beds, don't you? the Dollar Mob is gaining in strength and numbers! let's make a difference to these kids and get them a good night's sleep! you know what to do. blast that paypal account. the 'donate now' button on your right will allow you to donate, um, you know, now and ONLY now and for however much you want. the 'join the dollar mob' is for $1 every week. so choose however you want to give. you can do both, too! so ready, go!