United States

Adopting Children With Special Needs

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There are many children available for adoption, of all ages, available in the United States, who have special needs. For those parents who sincerely want to be blessed as they are blessing a child, this is one way to ensure that. As much as a loving home will give the child chances he or she would never have otherwise had, that loving home will benefit from the lessons learned by taking care of a child with special needs.

The term “special needs” can be anything from mild Attention Deficit Disorder to severe handicaps. Children with special needs are often the hardest to find homes for.

There are some misconceptions about children with special needs. As mentioned before, they are not all severely handicapped. Some have mild issues that can be taken care of with the help of a loving, structured family.

Those children who do require a bit more care and are adopted with special needs from the United States foster care system are usually eligible for Medicaid to cover their current and future medical costs. Some are also eligible for a continued stipend even after the adoption is final. Adoptive parents who would like to take in a child with special needs should not worry that they will go broke caring for that child.

Special needs can also mean that the child has an attachment to a sibling that he or she should not be separated from. Taking a sibling group who is tightly bonded would a huge blessing for them as it is not often that sibling groups are able to stay together in the foster care and adoption system.

If you think you have a special place in your heart for children with special needs, and that you could give them a stable, loving family life, consider talking to your local foster care system to find out more.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Foster care, United States

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendy’s restaurants. As an adopted child, he had always been willing to advocate for adoption and speak up to show people how adoption could benefit everyone. In 1990, President George Bush asked Dave to head up a national campaign that would encourage public to consider adoption of Foster Care children. Dave Thomas was proud to be asked and embarked on his mission wholeheartedly.

After appearing in several public service ads, and convincing other corporations to add adoption benefits for their employees, Dave still wanted to do more. He created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992 as a nonprofit public charity. He used Wendy’s to promote his charity and help him find permanent homes for children of Foster Care.

The fast food restaurant takes a portion of their proceeds to put towards the foundation. In addition, they run special fundraisers every year to support the foundation as well. For example, every fall the stores sell coupon books for free Frosties from Wendy’s. The money collected for those booklets goes to the foundation as well.

Dave with a simple and sincere man. He changed many lives before he died in 2002. His company still continues to strive towards their goal of finding every child in America a forever family.

They continue to run the foundation as he would have and bless others with a variety of special programs. Besides national awareness campaigns and national adoption day/month, they have other programs that include Wendy’s wonderful kids, adoption friendly workplace, and a home for the holidays.

Their website, at DaveThomasFoundation.Org, also has many resources for those looking to adopt, as well as access to many grants. The Dave Thomas Foundation is dedicated to promoting adoption from Foster Homes. Many of their grants support programs that aggressively promote the adoption of Foster Care children in the United States and Canada.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Foster care, United States

Foreign Hatian Adoption

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One example of this would be the country Haiti. While officials in the United States do not require the adoptive parents fly to Haiti at any time during the adoption process, in some circumstances the Haitian courts will require the adoptive parents to be present in the country to sign papers in the courtroom.

There are also many other requirements that different countries have. Haiti requires that both parents are over the age of 35. If one parent is under the age of 35, then they cannot already have any biological children and the younger parent must be at least 19 years older than the child they are attempting to adopt. Unlike some countries who shy away from single parents, Haiti does allow single parent adoptions.

When you are adopting a child it makes sense to believe that when the adoption is finalized you can take your child home with you. Unfortunately, that is very often not the case. Haitian courts require that adopted children leave the country with their adoptive names on their passports. Due to this, passports and other travel arrangements can not be made until after the adoption is finalized. This often takes two to three months after the adoption.

After the Haitian earthquake there was a lot of confusion about which children were adoptable and which ones were not. For a short time Haiti closed foreign adoptions. In April of 2010, foreign adoptions were allowed again. However, only children who were registered as orphans before the earthquake and children who could be proven to have two parents who died are currently allowed to be adopted.

Your commitment of time, money, patience can be rough. However, when you bring your child home for the very first time, you will know it was all worth it.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Haiti, United States

Changes are Normal When Adopting

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If you have recently adopted a child, you may find that there are things in your life that you need to change or give up. You may not be able to buy the latest piece of designer jewelry as often as you want anymore. Adding a child to the family can mean that major things are going to change for everyone.

If you already have other children, they will need to adjust and get used to the newest member of the family. Depending on the ages of the children, this can sometimes be easy, but at other times may be a struggle. Preparing other children before you bring home your newest child is something that you will most definitely want to do. With a change this big, you’ll want to make sure that you answer any questions that may arise. Your children may be confused as to why you are adding to the family, or they may feel that you are trying to replace them. Make sure that you let them know in no uncertain terms that you love them and always will. Explain why you made the choice to adopt a brother or sister for them.

If you do not have other children in the home, it may be a huge adjustment for you. Depending on the age of the child you are adopting, you may need to have a complete mind set overhaul. If you have decided to adopt an older child, most likely they will be used to things being different than they are in your house. If adopting a baby, you will want to make sure that your house is baby safe and that you have a routine set in place. Adoption can be difficult on all those involved, but letting everyone in the home know that they are loved is a great first step.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Child, Child Welfare League of America, Family, Foster care, Home, International, United States

The 2010 Adoption Tax Credit

For over a year adoptive families called, mailed, and emailed their congressmen to let them know that the Adoption Tax Credit had to be renewed. Set to expire on December 31, 2010 many families were counting on the tax credit to help pay their adoption expenses. Thankfully, the tax credit was renewed for another year, through December 31, 2011.

There have been some changes made to the bill that will positively affect families as well. First of all, the tax credit has been raised from $12,150 per eligible child to $13,170. Also, in previous years, families could only claim a credit for the amount of their tax liabilities. Thus, families who had little or no tax liabilities had to extend their credit with special paperwork, hoping to be able to claim it in subsequent years. Now, the adoption tax credit is fully refundable. This means that even someone who has zero tax liability during the year can collect the full $13,170 in the form of a refund.

Those who take the credit need to make sure they read the fine print carefully. Foreign adoptions only qualify for the credit in the year that the adoption is finalized. Expenses for adoptions within the United States can be deducted in the year that the expenses took place up to the allowed amount for each child.

Families considering adoption in the future can rest assured that the tax credit will be renewed again by the end of 2011. Tax professionals agree that it would be “political suicide” for anyone to be in on the decision to let that bill go. Still, it would not hurt for people to let their congressmen know that this is important and must be renewed for future years. Congress knows that those parenting children of adoption need that tax refund to offset the costs of doing so.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Adoption Tax Credit, United States

Interesting Statistics on Adoption

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The causes and effects of adoption are various and far reaching. Every corner of the world is touched by adoption. The numbers of children who are without parents at any one time is staggering, as is the number of children who find their “forever families”.

Studies show that each year over one million girls between the ages of 13 and 19 become pregnant. Teenage girls under the age of 15 account for more than 31,000 of those pregnancies.

Of those one million pregnant teenagers, about half will decide that parenting the child would be the best way for them to go. Nearly forty-five percent will choose abortion.

While less than ten percent of pregnant teens choose adoptive parents for their babies, those that do have been proven to continue their education, get better jobs, delay marriage longer, and earn more per year than those who choose parenting.

In the United States there over one million infertile couple who are waiting to adopt an infant or older child. That number does not include the number of single people or couples who are not infertile who also want to adopt.

Over 120,000 children are adopted in the Unites States each year. More than half of those are adopted domestically, but the rate of foreign adoptions is increasing as countries work to streamline their adoption processes.

Although people in the United States adopted children from 106 countries in 2001, most of the children came from just five countries. These include China, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala, Ukraine. Girls accounted for nearly seventy percent of foreign adoptions.

While there are over 120,000 adoptions in the United States each year, there are also over 120,000 children under the age of 18 who are in foster care and are waiting to be adopted. Approximately twenty-five percent of those children will reach age 18 without being adopted.

Filed Under: Adoption Tagged With: Adoption, Family, United States