The best 12 adoption blogs and social media accounts for adoptive families and hopeful adoptive parents to follow…
20
Jan
2017
Maintaining a Relationship with Your Child’s Birth Family
How to stay in touch with your child’s birth parents, and why it’s important…
6
Jan
2017
Our Open Adoption Story – Harry & Sherry
“Both of our two children have been adopted through open adoptions, and even after 25+ years, I’m absolutely convinced that it was the right decision. “
30
Dec
2016
2016 Adoption Tax Credit
With tax season around the corner many of our families are wondering what the Adoption Tax Credit is and how it works. Below we have provided a brief explanation of the Adoption Tax Credit, the updated amount available to families for the 2016 tax season, and an infographic to help families understand how the Adoption Tax Credit works.
What is the Federal Adoption Tax Credit?
The Federal Adoption Tax Credit can help families offset the costs of qualifying adoption expenses, making adoption possible for some families who could not otherwise afford it. Families who adopted a child, or tried to adopt a child, and paid qualifying expenses may be eligible for the credit.
With the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 the Adoption Tax Credit became a permanent part of the tax code. However, the tax credit is not refundable, which means that only those individuals with tax liability (taxes owed) will benefit.
The maximum adoption tax credit for 2016 is $13,460. The Adoption Tax Credit limit is based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and is recalculated each year based on current cost of living. For the 2016 Adoption Tax Credit, the maximum amount available will begin to phase out for families with MAGI above $201,920 and will be unavailable to families with incomes around $241,9200 or above.
26
Nov
2016
18 Ways to Fundraise for Your Adoption
Admittedly, the cost of adoption is fairly high and it can be difficult for some adoptive families to pay for their adoption without going into debt. While tax credits, adoption grants and employee benefit programs can help alleviate some of the costs they don’t always cover everything.
In these cases, adoptive families often turn to fundraising to help pay for the cost of adoption. With the help of Julie Gumm’s Adopt Without Debt, we have complied a list of 18 adoption fundraiser ideas that can help pay for your adoption.
17
Nov
2016
How One Mom Talks to Her Kids about Her Adoption
Jennifer Van Gundy is an Adoption Specialist at American Adoptions who is an adoptee herself. She’s also a mom to two kids, an 8-year-old and …
10
Nov
2016
Budgeting Tips for Hopeful Adoptive Parents
Adoption is not just a huge emotional investment, but a financial one as well – and if you’re a family just learning about adoption, you’re probably wondering how to start budgeting.
14
Oct
2016
We Want to See Your Finalization Photos!
D
o you have an adoption finalization photo you’d like to share? We want to see it and share it with our followers!
Our staff here at American Adoptions loves to see how our families are doing after placement. And we …
11
Oct
2016
What Makes My Open Adoption Work – Thoughts from a Birth Mother
From the start, I was open with my son’s parents about wanting the adoption to be open, and while the openness agreement is not legally binding, I knew it needed to be respected for the sake of my son. I was also transparent about wanting to slowly transition from a custodial parent to more of a birth parent role. Therefore, I had frequent contact with my son that lessened over the first two years of placement. I saw him every couple of months until I was comfortable not seeing my son as frequently. My son’s parents also communicated a need with me around the same time that they really needed more space.