Taxes...Oh Boy

I know I am not alone when I say "Oh Boy this years taxes!" This is the second year that I am to claim the adoption credit and what a mess it has been. This year is so different. Last year I did the taxes sent them in electronically and boom my refund was in my bank account a couple of weeks later.

This year there were many differences right off the bat. I had to file a paper return. Okay no problem there I did. This year I had to include an adoption decree and Anna's Visa. Okay I did but in the pit of my stomach I felt a pang of I really do not like this feeling. I waited and waited and no refund.

Many weeks later I received a partial refund, mind you I filed in March. I waited and waited to hear something more about what my next steps should be. Then I got the letter saying they were reviewing my return and I would be contacted if additional information was needed. The following week I got the letter asking for receipts.

So this past week, I spent a little over 30 dollars for the copying and close to 19 dollars for the postage but I have now sent in every receipt I have so that the IRS can examine them. I pulled out my adoption binder and so many feeling came out with it. Please wish the person who examines them good luck,the stack of receipts is tremendous.


Yes this is volume 2, I have another just like it but that one does not have receipts mostly educational information.


This is the envelope they wanted me to use to send this back to them. It made me laugh and feel a little sick all at once.

Anna is adopted, this is a fact I have never kept from her. She has heard the word adoption many times. If some one is interested in adopting or has adopted I am very open about my experience in the right setting. I prefer to field questions of a sensitive nature in a somewhat private setting. Gerard prefers that no one ask and he would never answer their questions, usually he just walks away. We differ in how we respond to questions for a bunch of reasons. I feel like I asked so many questions when I was going through the process that I owe it to others to answer questions asked of me.

My adoption books used to sit in the dinning room, right of the hutch when I was waiting for Anna to come home. I had tried to put them away a number of times but for some reason this paperwork was my only connection to becoming a Momma. After our first Post Placement Report, Gerard told me that I needed to put this book away. At the time I did not see the harm in leaving it out but he presented a good argument as to why it should be put away. I told him after I did the taxes.

Here is a little know fact about me...I have anxiety about paperwork. Last years taxes were difficult because I had to total up all the receipts according to the year, 3 tax years. This is something that I avoided like the plague. I realized I did not want to know how much the adoption expenses cost us. I knew I had a chunk of money in the bank and now I did not and that was enough for me. I never wanted Anna to have a price attached to her.

So this year when I pulled out the books that once were so familiar and felt good to hold suddenly they did not have that same feeling. When I carried these books I used to wrap my arms around them and hug them but they never hugged back like Anna does. I kept pretty much every receipt but not all. I know I did not. I now have a rough idea of how much money was spent but I try not to ever think about that.

I pray every night that the bulk of the money spent went to the other children waiting or living in the orphanages but somehow I just do not think so.

Gerard had no clue what the total was for adoption related expenses and does not want to know. I will say it was expensive and worth every penny. I know he was shocked by the stack of receipts. Tonight I packed the big book away again. Suddenly I felt a relief that it was gone again. I hugged Anna and smiled.

If I get the tax return that I am owed life here will be very different. If I do not get the return then it was God's will because life will go on. I am so thankful that next year I will not have to provide for or think of the adoption credit again. I will have a nice simple, ordinary return just the way I like it.