Answers from my last post

It seems like every person I know who has adopted except Stacy (GO CAPS!) has had an issue with the adoption credit. Please do not get me wrong I am so very thankful that this credit is available but I can tell you this was not the reason why I decided adoption was my path to motherhood.

I was going to try to answer everyone's comments with a return email but then I got to wondering if others perhaps had the same questions and needed the answers too. If you have not read the comments from my previous post this will sound pretty disjointed sorry.

Melissa--When I wrote that I had three years to add up it was because Anna's paperwork and the expenses around her adoption covered 3 different tax years. For the adoption credit I had to total up my expenses for each year separately. So I had expenses for 2007, 2008 and 2009. That is what I meant but I can see how it was worded funny.

Julie--Yes, you are right about Gerard. He is probably the most private person I have ever met. He is very reserve. He is the master of distraction, if he starts to see a conversation head down the wrong path he will try to completely change the subject or walk away. I see now that this is a good quality but in our early years together I would just become frustrated.

For Gerard he does not want the focus of all conversations about Anna to be about her being adopted. He does not want her to be treated differently then any other child who has come into our families. I will say the topic of Anna being adopted comes up pretty much once a day if not more often by our family members. I think that is where he gets frustrated.

In private (Gerard, Anna and I) the three of us are very open about her adoption. I usually do most of the talking. We even have a special puzzle that she loves to do of St. Basil's cathedral (I got it at T@rget) that we put together as a family which lets us talk about when Anna and I were in Moscow together.

I know in some families adoption is a dirty word or a secret but not in ours. I actually have cousins who are adopted on both sides of my family. He wants her to hear about her orphanage from me no one else, which makes sense since I was there and experienced it.

When Anna was first home I was encountered by a few distant family members who made remarks that were not kind about Russia. This has caused a great amount of tension in certain family situations. Gerard and I are adamant that no one will speak ill of Russia or the Russian people in our presence. He has spoken to his family and I have spoken to mine both families are now crystal clear on the subject.

I have a gift card for B@rnes & Nobles and I am going to order those books when I am done with this post. Anna LOVES books so I think they will be a good thing. Thank you so much for the titles.

Lisa--I hope your tax refund comes quickly. I think it is nice to know that I am not the only one experiencing this bump in the road.

Laura--I hope you do not have to pull out those receipts again...Ugh! I am sure they have everything you need.

JennStar--You have a great question. If I paid for it I tired to keep the receipt. As I said I know I am missing a few but I would say I have about 95% of them in the binder. I put all of my documents in clear sleeves so the documents would be protected. The receipts, I punched holes in and put in the back of the binder. For the small receipts I dedicated a clear plastic sleeve and just kept putting them into the pocket. I found the page from the IRS that explains what is needed. Here is the link

Also the Visa IR-3 is a page in the Russian passport in case you were wondering.

I hope to be able to take some pictures of the Anna and Hans tomorrow. I am lucky because I will get to watch Hans twice a week for a couple of weeks. Anna and Hans have learned to play together so nicely. In the morning Anna will go through the list of people she loves and Hans is way up there on the list.