Adoption Tax Credit

On April 17th, a bill was introduced to Congress which will be known, in short, as the Making Adoption Affordable Act.  This Act will permanently expand the adoption tax credit to an amount of $13,360, and make it refundable.  As most of you know, the current adoption tax credit will expire on December 31, 2012.  The Adoption Tax Credit is important to many adoptive families, and a great deal of adoptive families would be unable to adopt if not for the tax credit.  Considering that the current number of orphans worldwide is approximately 163 million, this tax credit will assist adoptive families in decreasing this number, and following God's call to "defend the cause of the fatherless" (Isaiah 1:17). 

So how can you participate and ensure that adoptive families continue to have this support?  Contact your local representative and encourage him/her to vote for the proposed bill.  

Here is a link to the actual bill:

http://braley.house.gov/sites/braley.house.gov/files/Rep.Braley.Making.Adoption.Affordable.Act_.pdf

And here is a link to a website from which you can locate and contact your local representative:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Please spread the word and forward this information to as many people as possible! 

God bless!

Scary Mommy Manifesto

Some humor before Easter weekend.  As I look forward to being a mommy, I would like to share this manifesto.  Hopefully it is something that I can live by:

Please solemnly recite the following before proceeding:

• I shall maintain a sense of humor about all things motherhood, for without it, I recognize that I may end up institutionalized. Or, at the very least, completely miserable.
• I shall not judge the mother in the grocery store who, upon entering, hits the candy aisleand doles out M&Ms to her screaming toddler. It is simply a survival mechanism.
• I shall not compete with the mother who effortlessly bakes from scratch, purees her own baby food, or fashions breathtaking costumes from tissue paper. Motherhood is not a competition. The only ones who lose are the ones who race the fastest.
• I shall shoot the parents of the screaming newborn on the airplane looks of compassion rather than resentment. I am fortunate to be able to ditch the kid upon landing. They, however, are not.
• I shall never ask any woman whether she is, in fact, expecting. Ever.
• I shall not question the mother who is wearing the same yoga pants, flip-flops and t-shirt she wore to school pickup the day before. She has good reason.
• I shall never claim to know everything about any child but my own. (Who still remains a mystery to me.)
• I shall hold the new babies belonging to friends and family, so they may shower and nap, which is all any new mother really wants.
• I shall attempt to not pass down my own messed up body issues to my daughter. She deserves a mother who loves and respects herself; stretch marks, cellulite and all.
• I shall not preach the benefits of breastfeeding or circumcision or home schooling or organic food or co-sleeping or crying it out to a fellow mother who has not asked my opinion. It's none of my business.
• I shall try my hardest to never say never, for I just may end up with a loud-mouthed, bikini clad, water gun shooting toddler of my very own.
• I shall remember that no mother is perfect and my children will thrive because, and sometimes even in spite, of me.

Excerpted from "Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary" by Jill Smokler. Published by Gallery Books.