Adoption tax credit

Paragraphein is a good writer. She is a mother and a biological mother of a child she relinquished. She is one of the few anti-adoption writers I can honestly say I like reading...I respect her opinion....it is clear and honest and she lets you see where she is coming from. It doesn't mean I agree with her but it's a blog that I have led others to read because I think it is a good and decent "different" view from my own.
With that said, I did want to disagree with one of her recent posts about the adoption tax credit.

First of all , you don't get a check for $10,000 from the IRS. It is the advantage of NOT paying taxes on $10,000 (to put it simply). This is also done for new businesses that are being "wooed" by a a city - it's an incentive to build there.

Second, I realize that the Tax credit began for different reasons than it's used for today.

"The reason I point this out is simply this: the adoption tax credit and Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 were started to (supposedly) help drug-exposed, abused, neglected, “hard to place” children find homes."

It did begin to help "hard to place" kids (I hate to use that term, but that is what they termed kids with disabilaties and older kids in the foster care system, it also came to mean bi-racial and AA children). When it began you had to go to your state's capital (at least in my state) and stand in line to apply and when the money was out - it was out. Everyone made a trip on the first day - that's about how much $ the govt provided. With as many people that wrote their legislation and said they, too, wanted help to adopt, more money was put in the "pot". The credit was then changed to include kids that were "hard to place" and international adoptions. But people still wrote.... "all kids are special that were up for adoption, there shouldn't be catagories". Rich people should not be the only people that can adopt, no matter what type of adoption you felt led to pursue.

I am thankful for the adoption credit....without it, average income people could not adopt as easily or at all. It's not like the credit makes everything simple, but it does help. When people have a biological child they get a tax break....we just get a little more as a head start. We would have still adopted a child without it, but it has helped with all the expenses that's for sure.

I don't believe this has anything to do with "racism or classism" ....it is about time the government helped the middle class do something....I'm lower middle income and wanted to adopt. I didn't rip a child away from a mother. My daughter's biomom could not/did not want to have to struggle raising another child. There were programs to help her and the biodad but she decided not to go that route. That doesn't make her a bad person.....and it gave us an opportunity to raise a child.....why can't the government help us do that? Nothing would have changed without it.


It's late, I'm writing with one hand (baby alseep in the other arm) and I see I'm writing in short sentences......yawn.....just needed to speak my tired mind.