Preliminary Application

It was sent! Along with our preliminary application, we had to include a signed statement of faith, a faith questionnaire, a signed notice of privacy practices, and a profession about criminal history, mental health history, abuse history, and addiction history. I put it in the mail today, but I forgot to take a picture... oops. I love how so much of the process is online- I was able to log onto our portal and pay the pre-application fee very easily.Wohoo, now to wait for it to be approved so we can begin the homestudy process!

Steps and Timeline

 Hopefully this checklist will better explain the domestic adoption process we're beginning. I've had lots of questions- "Do you have to "re-do" your homestudy?"... Yes. "What is the expected wait?"... Can vary really widely and we don't have a good answer. It's intimidating to type all this out and think, eventually one day, all this will come to pass. It's scary to think about a failed match or any other bumps that may come up.

1. FINISHED- Attend Orientation Meeting. This is a two hour event to educate us on the agency and process. 
Time: Occurs monthly (attended on 1/15/13)

2. FINISHED- Fill out Preliminary Application and pay initial $50 application fee.  
Time: Can fill out once loaded to online portal (mailed on 1/25/13 and approved on 1/31/13)

3. FINISHED- Fill out Formal Application and pay $900 application fee.  
Time: Can fill out once preliminary application is approved (submitted on 2/12/13 and approved on 2/22/13)

4. FNISHED- Begin training to include online trainings and reading books  
Time: Once formal application is approved (submitted documentation on 3/27/13)

5. FINISHED- Begin homestudy process to include home walk-though, couples interview, and individual interview. We will have to gather most of the same type of documents and do the same things we did for our previous home study to include financial information, references, medical exam, fingerprinting, etc. We will be working with an adoptive parent worker (expectant parents have their own worker).
Time: Once formal application is approved. This process should last about 6 weeks. ( home walk through on 3/19/13, submitted documentation on 3/27/13)

6. FINISHED- Meet with social worker to discuss type of situations we are open to (locations/states, drug exposure, health situations, race, gender, etc). Also we will decide on how much openness in the adoption we are open to (ongoing visits and contact). Our agency has a minimum requirement of monthly pictures and updates for the first year and then quarterly pictures and updates until age three. All of this is called a "service plan".  
Time: Concurrent with the homestudy process (developed on 4/10/13)

7. FINISHED- Develop a profile book and online profile. The profile book will be a photobook with information and pictures about us. When an expectant parent comes into the office, she/they will meet with their expectant parent worker and review all profile books that match the situation (which families are open to what their situation is). The expectant parent is in full control of what family she/they select. We will also make an online profile so if an expectant mother in another state doesn't find a family out of their office or wants to place in another geographical area, they can do an online search.
Time: Concurrent with the homestudy process (turned in books and submitted online profile on 4/16/13)

8. Our homestudy (again, like a book report on our family discussing our history, relationship, health, finances, home, intentions, etc) will be approved. Once it is approved, we will become a "waiting family". This means our profile book can begin to be shown.  We will pay $5,000 at this time to pay for our homestudy and to go towards a fund to help expectant parents with physical needs, bills, and to provide counseling. All adoptive parents pay into one fund, and with that money, any expectant parents who comes to the agency, whether they place or not, can be served.

Time: Because the expectant parent is in control of which family she/they select, we could be in the waiting period for a few months to a few years. Our agency does not tell us when our profile is shown (so no let downs to "nos") but when an expectant parent selects us, we will have an opportunity to get all the known details of the situation and say "yes" or "no". Our agency's shortest wait was a couple of weeks and longest wait was 4 years. There is currently a 2:1 ratio meaning they have twice as many waiting families as they make placements per year. This is actually a good ratio compared to other agencies I have looked into.

9. This is where things can branch into many directions. The expectant parent gets to decide whether they want to meet us. The majority chose to meet the potential adoptive parents ahead of time. The meeting usually happens at the agency office and the agency workers are present, as well.  
Time: This can occur early on in the pregnancy or even once the baby has already been born, depending on when the mother turns to the agency. Our agency's average time for a match is when the mother is 7 months along.

10. After birth, the baby is placed with us. We may or may not be present in the hospital at the birth, depending on the timeline, the birth mother's wishes, and even if it is in another state. At this point, we pay our remaining agency fees (amount TBD depending on when this occurs since our fee is dependent on past 3 years' income).  
Time: Upon hospital discharge

11. At this point, the birth parents' rights are still intact. The birth mother will go to the courthouse about a week after birth and sign a voluntary TPR (termination of parental rights). This is not final until 10 days after signed. During this period, the birth mother can change her mind (I was happy to note our agency has had only 1 revocation out of about 100 adoptions in the past 5 years) . The birth father may go sign the same papers, as well (same revocation period), or he may have signed a waiver of parental rights before birth (no revocation period). If the father is unknown or cannot be located, the agency will have to publish an ad in the newspaper and have a court date to involuntarily terminate his parental rights.  
Time: About 17 days-several months, depending on the circumstances

12. Keep in mind, that the process described in #11 only happens if the baby we are matched with is born in TN. Every state has their own laws. Some states let the birth mother sign in the hospital and there is no revocation period. Most states do have revocation periods but they vary widely from a few days up to a month. Also keep in mind that if we go to another state, there is a federal law called ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) that applies. Due to this, we cannot cross state lines with a baby until given approval by the respective state.  
Time: Several weeks

13. At any time in this process until the parents' rights are terminated, they are able to change their mind and regain custody of the baby. They can also, obviously, change their mind even before the birth. If this happens, we will return to step #8, waiting for a match.  
Time: Several weeks to several months, as described above

14.Once the parents' rights are terminated, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, the baby will remain with us although it will then be in the legal custody of the agency. The agency will visit us three times during the first 6 months. TN law allows for adoption finalizations only after the child has been in your home 6 months. So, at 6 months, we will find an attorney (this part is separate from the agency and is an additional cost) to file a petition to adopt in the county we live in.
Time: Six months from birth

15. Finalization happens in court. Once this occurs, the baby is permanently our child. We will get a birth certificate with our names listed and a new SSN. As the judge always said in adoptions I was apart of in my previous job, they are fully apart of your family, down to having the right to inherit property. It's permanent and final (despite "Lifetime Movie" depictions) as long as there was no coercion (eg: exchanging money with birth parent) and fraud (eg: hiding things from birth father).
Time: Hopefully only a couple of weeks after filing a petition to adopt

We Had Orientation

We had our orientation meeting this week. It went well. The next step is to submit a preliminary application once it is uploaded to our online adoption portal website. Once that is submitted and approved, we will turn in our full application and begin the home study process.

Adoption Tax Credit Update

Source of this information comes from the "Save the Adoption Tax Credit" Facebook page: "The IRS has released the official inflation-adjusted numbers for 2013. The maximum adoption tax credit for 2013 is $12,970. The credit begins to phase out for taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income of $194,580, and the credit will phase out completely at $234,580." It is reported that the amount can be spread out over 5 years of tax returns.

Adoption in the Media: Thumbs Up and Down

Here is an interesting list of positive and negative ways people have noticed adoption being portrayed in the media and society, as published by Adoptive Families magazine. Some I don't agree with (Despicable Me? I love the adoption story line... I think if that is all people know about adoption it might be unhelpful, but I think there are plenty of relevant messages like many children waiting for adoption feel unwanted and desire a family desperately. I think it does portray the adult benefiting from adoption, but the kids benefit, too. I love one of the final scenes where it shows them cozy in bed, getting a bedtime story from their adoptive dad.) However, many of the things on the list are interesting and spot on.

Adoption and the Fiscal Cliff

If you're like me, you're sick of hearing about Congress slowly "working together" to get a financial plan for the new year. However, I have been interested in the outcome of the Fiscal Cliff legislation because it could potentially affect our adoption.

Since 1997, an adoption tax credit has been offered in several different forms. For example, last year there was a credit of $12,650, that could be carried across five years, meaning you got a credit of that amount on what you owe at the end of the year. If you paid $6,000 worth of taxes per year, you'd get that back for two straight tax refund checks. For a few years before that, the credit was refundable meaning you'd get the $12,000+ back on top of whatever refund you'd normally get. So long story short, even though many adoptions cost $20,000-$30,000+, you could potentially get part of that back through a tax credit. Yay!

Many agencies I have looked into even point out the adoption tax credit as part of "financing adoption". Well, that wouldn't help too much if the credit went away (or in the case of what almost happened, it would be cut in half and only apply to some adoptions).

Luckily, the adoption tax credit was part of the Financial Cliff deal. What was decided upon was a $10,000 credit that is non refundable, meaning you don't get that amount automatically back on your tax refund check, but you do get to credit that toward what you owe. What that means for us is we will likely get $10,000 but it will be spread over a couple years, won't start until the fiscal year after we finalize our adoption (which can only happen at least six months after a placement... so potentially years away), and will really be just getting some of the money back that we pay in taxes. It's better than nothing, and I am certainly grateful for it, because saving for an adoption sure puts a dent in anything else we would otherwise be saving for... house repairs, saving towards the next car, etc.