Reality

What is the world coming to? I have always been a news watcher. I like knowing what’s going around in my community, it makes me feel involved and in touch with my surroundings. Maybe it is just because of the difficulties Jeff and I are having getting pregnant or maybe because the world is truly getting to be a more horrible place but now when I watch the news I just get so pissed off.

I hope it is only in the area that I live in (although I’m pretty sure it is everywhere) but what is wrong with people? It breaks my heart every time I watch the news because I swear every day there is a new story of grown adults being horrible parents and terrible human beings. I’m sorry if I’m being harsh and I know people make mistakes, hell I make them daily, but smoking meth in the same motel room as your 3 year old then leaving them alone for over 4 hours to go gamble at a casino is inexcusable. In my opinion the parents should never get full custody of that child back. This is just one example from yesterday’s news too.  Even more heartbreaking a father in Oregon murdering his wife and two young children, and then committing suicide. At one point those parents had temporarily lost custody of their children, less than a month later getting it back and now they are no longer alive, three lives cut tragically short by the hands of the ones who are supposed to protect and love them the most . What could children ever do to deserve this? Our laws are WAY to lenient on these parents and it needs to be changed, sadly it seems like parents like this are the ones that are reproducing the most. I know it is taking away some freedom but honestly if you do something to permanently lose custody of one of your children, I don’t think you should be allowed to reproduce again. Yes, it is a little harsh but I’m sorry I believe children deserve better.

 I could go on forever about this but sadly that is not even the part that bugs me the most. There are thousands upon thousands of people who would love to be parents and would cherish these children more than anything else in the world but they don’t ever get the opportunity. Part of it is the injustice of the world, horrible people getting blessed with children and honorable people not. That unfortunately we cannot change. We can change the way the adoption system works.  I just don’t understand how legally adopting a child can cost so much.  The average cost of adoption, as reported in the latest Adoptive Families adoption cost survey (2009-2010), was around $30,000 (before the federal tax credit and employee adoption benefits).

Even if you’re lucky and get the max amount you can claim the biggest tax credit you COULD receive is $13,360. In 2013 it is projected to only receive $5000 max as a tax credit. Either way there is a good chance adoption will cost you no less then around $20,000.  

Adoption Tax Credit Amounts

2013: $5,000 or $6,000 for special needs child (projected)

2012: $12,650, non-refundable

2011: $13,360 refundable

2010: $13,170 refundable

This is insane. Even if we dismiss the international adoptions, why are US adoptions this much? The paperwork and court cost on average to legally change over custody of a child from one person(s) to other person(s) *in most cases* is less than $500. Where is the rest of the money going to? I know some of it is medical cost, but unless the birth mother has no insurance (in which case it is covered by the state if giving that child up for adoption) patients with insurance should expect a bill for around $500 – $3000. Even if you add the $3000 cost for medical care and $500 for the legal and court cost, I’ll even throw in an extra $500 for miscellaneous expenses it still only adds up to $4000. This is on the high end too.  We still have $26,000 left. There is also running cost of the adoption agencies, but even if we paid them $6,000 per child which is way more than enough, we still have $20,000 left. I can rant and rave all day and bust out hundreds of facts but honestly what breaks my heart the most is that we are screwing good people out of thousands of dollars every day for what!?! Taking over someone else’s responsibility both financially and physically? They are relieving the state of not having to take care for these children saving thousands of tax dollars. They volunteered to do this, I get it, but in a lot of cases they are doing this because for some reason or another they themselves could not have children of their own. Yet they have to pay $30,000 just to get the child then over a million dollars in the life time of raising that child. These are people doing an extremely good deed for their community and for the world yet they pay the most for it. In my opinion adoption should not ever cost more than the amount it takes to take care of the birth mothers medical bills and the legal fees of switching over custody. People get arrested all the time for trying to sell their children yet the government does it legally (and makes a profit off it) daily.