Adoption and the "M" word: Money

The other day I found an article on cnn.com about how the vast majority of adoptive families have had their adoption tax credit audited by the IRS this year. The article was not terribly helpful, simply stating what I already knew from experience: the IRS is auditing a whole mess of people. I did make the mistake, however, of reading the comments. Wow. Big mistake. It was filled with such hate and ignorance I am still pissed off about it. Angry in the kind of way that I spend waaaaay too much time sitting around thinking about what kind of eloquent and compelling response I would give these people if I had my druthers. So, I head here, dear Internet, to try and purge this incident from my head so I can focus on the happy things in life.

What several commenters insinuated or outright stated was that the adoption tax credit was no better than welfare (why a person would be against welfare is another blog post for another day) and that they suspect some adoptive families were simply doing it for the "windfall" otherwise known as the adoption tax credit. I almost choked when I read that one. Windfall?? Really??!!

Here is what I want people to know: I did not adopt to make money from the government. If I didn't find the idea so horribly insulting I would be laughing. Here are the facts: The most recent Adoptive Families survey reported that the average cost of adoption was $30,000. The majority of domestic infant adoptions cost between $25,000 and $35,000, while a "strong majority" of international adoptions cost more than $25,000. The current adoption tax credit is $13,170. Do the math.

For me and many I know, the adoption tax credit is what made our adoptions possible. Without the tax credit, I suspect most would find the cost of adoption absolutely prohibitive. What, I wonder, would the world of adoption look like without the tax credit? More and more children abroad spending more time in institutionalized care (many countries already struggling to provide for millions of orphans and at-risk children), children here at home being put into an already overloaded foster care system.

Why I chose to build my family through adoption is a whole other post entirely, but I can say with absolute certainty that money had nothing to do with it. So there, ignorant article-commenters, is my eloquent response to your uninformed and hostile accusations.

Next up? Perhaps the following posts: "No, I didn't adopt out of some philanthropic impulse to save the children of Africa," and "Nope, I'm nothing like Angelina Jolie and I didn't adopt because of her."