Dear friends and family,

Hello! We’re writing now for two reasons:

1. To give everyone a brief update on the status of our adoption
2. More importantly, we need just 15 minutes of your day to help us get $12,000 for the adoption. Seriously, no joke.

Status update

As you know, we are currently in the process of adopting our first child. We started in the Spring of 2007, and have been hoping and waiting ever since. We experienced a major setback when Vietnam closed their doors to American adoptive families. We quickly rebounded and moved on to domestic (aka American) adoption. We apparently have terrible luck since domestic adoptions have slowed dramatically in the last year, and there is still no end in sight as we enter year four of our journey.

So basically our status update is “everything is the same as it has been for the last year and a half.” Kind of anticlimactic, we know. People often ask “what’s going on with the adoption?” Here it is: we’re simply waiting to be matched with a birthmother. No more, no less. There is just a major shortage of birthmothers which is causing the long wait.

15 minutes of your day

We are hoping that 2010 will be the year that we become parents. Three years is a long time, and we are worn out with waiting. But more importantly, 2010 is the last year that adoptive families will be eligible for the Adoption Tax Credit. This is a tax credit given to adoptive families after they have completed an adoption. It currently covers costs up to $12,000. Considering that our adoption bill will add up to somewhere near $25,000 when it’s all said and done, the tax credit is basically our financial lifeline. Unfortunately, if we don’t complete an adoption by December 31st, 2010, we may not be able to take advantage of the credit. Without the credit, completing our adoption will be extremely difficult, and perhaps impossible.

Fortunately, there are two bills in the House and Senate – H.R. 213 and S2816 – that will reinstate the credit if passed. If you would like to help not only us, but thousands of families and children throughout the country, we’re asking that you take just a few minutes to contact your Senators and Congressmen and let them know that you support these bills.

We’ve been informed that e-mail or telephone are the best way to let our reps know that you support the bill. Snail-mail tends to take a long time and often doesn’t even make it to the right people. Don’t worry, we’ve made it ridiculously easy. Please follow these steps:

Easy Peasy

1. Copy the pre-written letter of support from this Web site:

   http://adoptiontaxcredit.wetpaint.com/page/Letter+or+Phone+Call+Script+to+Representive+from+Adoption+Supporter

2. Go to the contact Web pages for your representatives:
   http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
3. For each representative: paste in the pre-written letter, edit the letter to add your name (both in the first sentence, and the sign-off!), and click send
4. Done! The entire process should take no more than 15 minutes and means the world to us.

Thank you for all your love and support throughout this process. We can’t wait to send you the e-mail letting you know we’ve completed our journey!

Thank you,
Kate and Joel

P.S.
For the law nerds, here is more info on the bills:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-2816
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-213

If you aren’t from the Vietnam adoption world, here is what we are referring to:

“Vietnam to end US adoption Scheme”

We arrived early, which was good because we got through pretty quickly. As directed in our official appointment letters, we arrived with our letters and picture ID in hand, with no cell phones or recording devices, yes, this was the only thing they insisted we not bring. The building is kind of sketchy looking, as Joel said, “if the lights were out I’d think it was abandoned.”

A very nice security guard checked our credentials, handed us yet another short form to fill out, and sent us into the main lobby; a faded, pale blue room decorated with 20 year-old, government issue photos of purple mountains majesty, and other various all-American imagery, florescent lights, and rows and rows of hard, gray, plastic chairs. Everyone there looked very somber. We filled out our form and gave it all back to the nice security guard, who made a few extra marks and sent us into a line at the back of the pale blue room. When we got to the front of the line, another nice, cordial gentleman stamped our forms and gave us a number, and sent us into another, smaller, pale blue room, similarly adorned, to wait for our number to be called. Our numbers were called very quickly and we were again helped by very nice gentlemen. My prints took longer than Joel’s, they kept finding blank spots where the prints didn’t pick up on the computer. When we finished up with that, we were sent on our way. Simple as that.

Overall it was a quick and painless process. The first so far! So, now we wait again, hopefully for no more than a month, for our final document to come home to us. This will mean that our dossier is complete and we are in line for our little one. Whew!

The appointment is Jan. 2nd. What better way to shake off the New Year hangover and start the year on a good foot by being fingerprinted by Homeland Security? But when it’s for a good cause, USCIS can capture my biometrics any time