Save The Federal Adoption Tax Credit

Many who read our blog already know about our wonderful journey of adoption. Through this journey, we've become more passionate about adoption and everything that goes into making miracles like ours take place.

Many people don't realize that in 2001, as part of the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, a federal tax credit for adoption was introduced. This tax credit has become such a relief for families who wish to adopt. In fact, it has helped increase legal adoption in the United States (for both international and domestic) by a considerable amount over the past decade. It has come to our attention that the Adoption Tax Credit (HR 213) is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.

Most may not be aware, but the costs of adoption are staggering. Whether its international adoption or domestic, the costs range anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 (and the average cost is right around $20,000). The Adoption Tax Credit will give adoptive parents a credit up to $12,100. There are so many wonderful families and couples who can provide loving homes for children, but need this financial assistance. Chances are that we will find ourselves in this position of adoptiong again.

If anybody is willing, we are asking you to write to your representative in Congress to save this federal tax credit from expiring. Below, we've included a letter that we wrote and you can feel free to include any parts of our letter in your own letter. We're sure that many of your lives have been blessed by adoption. For us, it has been a miracle that has blessed our lives, our child's life, her birth mother's life, as well as our extended family's lives. There are 150,000 - 200,000 adoptions each year in the U.S., each, as ours did, with impact that touches many more lives.

If you are not sure how best to contact your representative, you can click on the link below and type in your state and zip code to access a mailing address or even send an e-mail directly.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Dear Congressman Matheson,



We are writing as a family to encourage you to vote
for the adoption Tax Guarantee Act of 2009, HR 213. As you are already well
aware, this bill is a pending legislative effort to prevent the expiration of
the Federal Adoption Tax Credit. As a young family whose lives were recently
touched by the blessing of adoption, we feel strongly that this is an initiative
that our government should continue to support, which encourages the growth of
strong and loving families. As you may or may not be aware, the costs associated
with adoption are staggering and continue to rise. After years of dealing with
the heartache of unexplained infertility, we spent a substantial portion of our
savings on infertility treatments, including two rounds of In Vitro
Fertilization. We always thought that we would eventually conceive through these
innovative procedures, but after a miscarriage and a many failed attempts, our
eyes were opened that the only way to start a family was through adoption. With
this tax credit (that we will be receiving next year), it helped to make this
adoption in our family possible.

Without going into too many details of our adoption
journey, in short, it was a miracle felt by us, a financially distressed mother
who at the last minute realized that adoption was the only way to give her child
and herself a better life and a miracle which blessed the life of our daughter,
Taylor, who has two loving parents who are able to provide her with all of her
needs. Our story is only one example of the 200,000 adoptions or so that take
place every year. We do not know if you have been involved with adoption in your
own family, but as any of our family members or friends can attest, it is one of
the most beautiful and special experiences that can take place in a lifetime. We
hope to adopt another child if not more as we grow our family. With adoptions
that cost an average of $25,000 per adoption, this Federal Tax Credit is just
one step in helping to make these adoptions financially possible.

We appreciate you representing the needs of your constituents and we love living in
this state where family values are so important. We are very hopeful that you
will represent those values as you vote for this bill. We love sharing our story
and if there is any way that could help with the passing of this bill, please
let us know.

Sincerely,

Dustin and Jamie

Taylor's Walking!

So, Tay's walking! Kind of. You'll love this video footage of her taking her first few steps. We get so excited that we scare her.

House Sold!

Well, today is a very good day because, after seven months of aggressively trying to sell our rental property, we closed the sale today!!

Most who read this know that this was our first home - and it happens to be just right across the street from our current house. We bought our current house three years ago, and it was a sudden move, as we really had no plans to move. But it was a house we always liked and we moved fast. As such, we didn't have our house up for sale when we bought it - so we decided to rent that house out.

It's been an adventure. Three years ago, the market was hot. So who would have thought that, by waiting three years, it would be one of the worst times to sell??? Being a landlord was a great learning experience. We had some nightmare tenants to start with (unless you think it's cool to have the police come over because they were shooting birds out of the neighbors trees), followed by some of the best tenants you could ever ask for.

So why did we sell now? Well, we'd have to pay capital gains tax on the house unless we sold it by the end of November. With the uncertainty of where property values will go from here - and the desire to not have a hefty tax bill - we decided it would be best to sell now. And for the last seven months, it was a major stress - and it's a HUGE relief to not have an extra mortgage now.

But even though we're so excited that it's sold, now's the time where we're reflecting on all of the memories from our first house. So, I'm going to take you down memory lane with us. So, now's the time where we get all reflective. Start playing the sappy music that Clark Griswold listened to while watching old home videos in the attic . . .

When you see these photos, you'll probably think the same thing we're thinking when we look back at the house when we bought it - which is "what we're we thinking???" I really don't know WHY we would have bought the house, seeing how it looked then. Well, a few excuses: (1) we were wide-eyed, not-yet-married, and just excited to be getting something of our own. (2) we bought the home for the great area. My sister moved in the month before, and it was a convenient location, a good value, and we liked the large trees. (3) we saw potential. Our goal was to make it into a home we loved over the few years that we'd live there. This house was livable, but also had plenty to improve upon, which was something we liked. And I think we ended up doing a decent job of improving it.

Seriously. This is the photo from the flyer from when we bought the house. Notice the beautiful foilage in front of our house. Yes, that is the front of our house behind the overgrown fetzer and junipers.

The very day that we closed on the house, our good friend, Gordon, came over and helped us cut down those junipers that were blocking our front door and front of our house (as you can see in the photo below):

And what about this beautiful stone-work? The funny thing is, I actually liked the stone work when we first bought it. And trust me, the pictures do no justice with how bad the "stone work" was. It was really bad. It took me two years to realize what a meager job it was, until one day, Jamie came home and found me ripping it all off with a crow bar and sledge hammer. With no warning, I had enough.

Well, here's what the front of our house looked like as of now:

Backyard when we bought it:

Backyard when we sold it:

Our beautiful kitchen. I loved the color scheme in the house when we bought it: white. The whole house was just spray-painted white. We later found out why - it was covering up a much worse paint job.


Kitchen now:

Our family room:

The same view of our family room a few years later:

The main bathroom at time of purchase:

The main bathroom seven years later:

So, good-bye, first house. We hope you can provide as many valuable memories for the new owners as you did for us. And at least you're not going anywhere - we'll be seeing you often whether we'd like to or not.

1st Triathlon

As of Saturday, I am officially a Triathlete. Well, a sprint triathlete, I guess. It was a 400 meter swim (which was quite interesting), 12 mile bike and a 5K run. I was always intrigued by triathlons, but never thought I'd actually do one. I guess this is something that I can check off my list.

I think that I've made mention of it before, but I have seriously become one of the laziest gals around since my swimming days. It was like some type of rebellion for me and working out seemed like hell to me. But I was so inspired by Dustin the past two years not only with his triathlons, but his biking and his constant drive to stay in shape. Since I had a couple of friends who wanted to do one to it seemed like the best thing. I always do better when I feel obligated by others to do something. But knowing me I knew that I had to just sign up for it, otherwise I wouldn't do it. So for the past 3 months or so (with a 3 week hiatus in September) I have been training. Training was a bit hard with a baby and a husband who is a busy man, but I started to feel that fire that I haven't felt for a long time.

So I know that this isn't some award show, but I wanted to thank a few people. Thanks to my mom who was seriously going to fly out to watch me until I forbid her to do so. She has always believed in me and has always loved to watch me compete. I guess I am pretty blessed to have two parents who have always been involved in my extracurricular activities. Thanks to Quique! Without her dragging me along on some of those runs, they may never have happened and I may not have made it through them. I know 3 miles is nothing, but it is a lot for someone who has always hated running. I am grateful to my friends who have done a tri and the ones who did it with me and for all of the love and support! Thanks to my IPod and especially the show "Glee" for their rendition of "Don't Stop Believing". That song helped so much when it was too cold to run outside and I had to run on the treadmill.... yuck! Thanks to Taylor! I have always wanted to be a mom (like my own mother) who wants her children to know that anything is possible and that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. It was something that I knew I had to teach by example so she was a huge inspiration for me. And of course to Dustin. I was so proud of him two years ago when he did his first triathlon and he inspired me so much. He has been my cheerleader, my trainer, my teacher, whatever I have needed. He has even been my whipping post when I was scared to death to clip in and out of bike with cars driving right next to me. It was such a big sense of accomplishment, one that brought back a lot of fond memories.

And I am sorry to those people that I had to swim over because apparently the swimming in the pool part wasn't organized great, but I still had a lot of fun!

Ava and me before the triathlon. Ava just turned 6 and did the Kid's Triathlon with two of her brothers and our other friend's son, Luke. It was by far the cutest thing I've ever seen!

After the race... I look like crap, but was actually proud of myself. Here I am with two of my biggest fans!

Marissa and me after the race. She is in her 2nd year at Utah State and is one of the Young Women that I got to hang out with when I worked with the Youth in church. She did so awesome and we are already planning to do another one together next year!!!!

Amy and Megan (and their husbands) participated too, but they were a bit preoccupied with kids so I didn't get a chance to get a pic with them because right after the race we were off to Vegas to watch the Utes beat UNLV. (The race was in St. George). I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend, minus the driving part of course... :)

September in Review

With Taylor's birthday starting us in September, football season starting, a trip to Cali, bike rides, trying to sell a house and then our anniversary to end September, it was a pretty awesome month. And even though I can't seem to account for a lot of it, I definitely didn't make time for the blog. As I mentioned before, we celebrated Taylor's actual birthday at the Utah vs Utah State game, however we wanted to make sure that she did have a party. So we had some of our family and a few of our friends over to join in the festivities. Honestly, we were planning on something really small, but there were so many people that supported us and prayed for us that made our miracle possible, so we had to include some more people. Although, there were so many of you that also made this possible, so know that we celebrated you as well on Taylor's special day.

Cam posing with Taylor on her special day with her special crown from Grandma TT that lit up and everything!


The cake that didn't turn out quite so great. Luckily I still have a year or two to improve my cake making skills.



The video is a little long, but next to the cute kids painting Taylor's face, the funniest part is how hard it is for Dustin to watch. For those of you that don't know him as well, he was the kid that if he got anything on his hands, he would freak out. Bless his sweet little heart!

After her birthday, we went home to visit my fam. We hit a Giants game and a football game and got to spend some time with the family, but as always, the week went by way too fast!

For our anniversary, we decided to do it on the Saturday before. It was a perfect fall day. Dustin had some church stuff in the am so I took Taylor and Quique to Tanner Park so Q could swim and run around with her friends. Then Dustin had a great idea to meet for brunch up at Solitude Ski Resort, so he rode his bike from our house up Big Cottonwood Canyon and Taylor and I met him there. This picture doesn't give the day justice, but the weather was perfect, just like our wedding day.

The brunch was amazing and Taylor really seems to like eating out with us and for the most part she's an angel! We ended the day by watching Utah beat Louisville so we couldn't have asked for a better day and I couldn't ask for a better family!

Two of my very favorite people.

Taylor is all about the open mouth kisses...

We love the gap between her top front teeth. Who can resist that smile?

And she has the sweetest laugh that I could listen to all day long!