Great Adoption News!!!!

Recently we had heard that the government was going to remove the tax credit for adoptive families. This would not be a good thing for families who were thinking about adopting and for families who like us are already in the process and planning on that financial help at the end. Here is the latest and greatest news. Again this is taken word for word from another blog. They seem to understand it better than I do, and are able to word it better.

"There is good news for newly adoptive families from the health care bill that was signed into law on the 23rd. The adoption tax credit has been extended until the end of 2011 and increased from $12,170 to $13,170 for adoptions occurring after January 1, 2010 (it's retroactive). Even better, the credit is now refundable.


REFUNDABLE MEANS THAT YOU ACTUALLY GET PAID BACK BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE FIRST $13,170 OF YOUR ADOPTION!!!!

USA Today's brief analysis:

"Taxpayers who adopt children: Effective in 2010, the bill makes the adoption credit refundable, increases the credit by $1,000 and extends the increased adoption credit through 2011."http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2010-03-23-health-care-taxpayers_N.htm"


We praise God for this good news!!! He continues to take care of us and carry us through this process. When we first began this process I had no idea where the money would come from, but God is sooo good. Why am I surprised by this?

My heart was left in Africa

It was almost 3 1/2 years ago when I boarded a plane to Uganda, Africa with the group I sing in "Alive". I never knew how much that trip would change my life. We went there to work with a Pastor of a church that was striving to bring the word of Christ to the University students in Kampala (the capital of Uganda). We flew in late at night without the majority of our luggage, including our microphones. In my mind I wondered what God was thinking letting this happen when we were going there to use our gift of singing to bring His word to the students. We quickly learned He was trying to teach us to trust Him. I could go on and on about our trip and all of the amazing things God did during it, but I would be writing for hours. The people we met and the churches and groups we sang for were such a blessing. It was so hard to leave even though I missed Gabbie and Jason soooooooooo much. When I came home I felt as if part of me still wanted to be in Africa. This is so interesting when I think of where we are today. Never in my wildest dreams did I think God would call me to once again return to Africa and bring part of it home with me. Maybe God was preparing me 3 years ago for this journey that we are on now. Just as God reminded us to TRUST Him 3 years ago in Africa, He is constantly telling me TRUST ME through this process. I am so thankful for His faithfulness and goodness. I am sooooo excited to visit Africa again, but this time I will leave with one of the most beautiful things Africa has to offer.

KAMPALA PICTURES:

We are finally getting back to normal. Maia still is doing her breathing treatments every 4-5 hours, which means I get to have plenty of cuddle time with her. She sits perfectly as long as I have a movie on for her. As I sat and stared at her cute chubby cheeks, and long eyelashes, I realized that our little guy may not get to have cuddle time when he is a baby. Most of the time I am available to my kids when they need to be soothed from a boo boo, hugged for hurt feelings, or just kissed because I can't help it. Children who are born into an orphanage do not have these luxuries at their disposal. It does not mean their caregivers do not desire to give them hugs and kisses, it just means they only have so much time, and so many arms for so many children. I guess I am looking forward to giving him as much cuddle time as he will need. Like any woman who is pregnant and looking forward to meeting her baby, I too am looking forward to meeting our little man. I have the excitement of wondering what he will look like, but the anxiety of hoping he will love us and bond to us. I know all of these details are in God's hands, but sometimes I just can't help but wonder and even worry sometimes.

germs, germs, and more germs

The Boersma house has been full of yucky germs. Maia has RSV and has had 2 very sleepless nights. We are giving her breathing treatments 3-4 times per day. Jason had night duty last night, and was up for more than half the night. I have been blessed with the "crud". In other words, stuffy nose, coughing attacks, muscle ache, and you know the rest. Alexa's nose runs like a faucet and Gabbie seems to somehow have slipped by and remains healthy. In the midst of all of this our paperwork has had to take a backseat for a couple of days. Our social worker will hopefully be contacting us soon to schedule our first home visit. We will have several meetings with her. When all the paperwork is in and the rest of the visits are finished she writes about a 10 page report about us. I can't imagine writing 10 pages about a family I only know from a few visits. It should be very interesting. That's all for now I have a coughing, crying infant who needs to be taking a nap. Thanks for checking in on us.

The News is In

We were unable to listen in to the conference call on both days. It was driving me crazy to not know what this "big" change was. I decided to look on someone elses blog and this is what I found. I am taking these words directly from another person's blog.

"We now must travel to Ethiopia twice. Yes. Two trips. There have been families that traveled to Ethiopia to pick up their child and then basically revoked their contract and wound up not adopting the kiddo. Can you believe that?! I don't see how anyone could do that... Anyway, this new policy is to help that to not happen.

How it worked before: You get a referral. You have a Power of Attorney who signs your adoption contract for you in Ethiopia when you accept your referral. Your case goes to court. After you pass court, travel arrangements are made and you go to Ethiopia and finally meet your child and bring him home.

How it will work now (or so we think so far): You get a referral. 2-3 weeks later you travel to Ethiopia and meet your child. You sign your adoption contract in person while in Ethiopia. You come home for about 8-12 weeks. During this time your case goes to court. After you pass court you travel just as you did before. "

This definitely adds to the amount of time from referral to homecoming. This also adds to the cost of adoption. Jason and I have begun to think about the best way to handle this. We are trusting God, and wil continue to keep this in His hands. There is nothing we can do to change this, so why worry. My only fear that I need to give to God is "How will I meet our peanut, and leave him in Africa?"

Conference Call today

We received an email on Monday inviting us to participate in a conference call for all Ethiopian families. There have been an few changes in the process due to some poor media on Ethiopian Adoptions. Please pray this does not affect our process too much. I am not allowed to give too much information. The email sent to us said that some of this should remain confidential until further notice.

I am headed to the doctors today to get required medical check ups for Alexa and Maia. It's amazing how every document has to be notarized. I am so thankful to our friend Crys who is willing to meet me at the doctor's office today to notarize our medical documents. Still paperchasing.......

My Little Artists

When the winter days get long I am constantly trying to find things for the girls to do. This week I outlined a body, and told them to make themselves. We filled the table with all sorts of craft items they could use, and they went to town. Thankfully they spent almost an hour creating themselves. I had to show off their cute artwork.