Have You Finished Your Tax Return?!?!

You have only have three weeks left to file your tax return!! Are you done? Have you figured out how or when you are going to get it done? There is still time to get help with your return. I have capacity to take on a few more clients before the end of tax season. Let me know if you are interested....

For those that are claiming the adoption credit, if you have any questions please let me know. There are extra filing requirements this year and it has become a refundable credit! For those of you that adopted prior to 2010, you still may be able to get some of this refundable credit. If you did not file for the credit the year that you adopted you can go back and amend the returns to create a carry forward that you can take advantage of this year. Make sure that you are taking full advantage of the credit. I am more than happy to answer questions of fellow adoptive parents and then help you file if you need help.

Urgent Need for Help with Ethiopian Adoption

We have received notice the the Ministry of Women's affairs in Ethiopia has a movement in place that would decrease the amount of adoptions processed by up to 90%, leaving thousands of children a year in orphanages instead of joining a loving family; children like Johnny. I am heartbroken to hear this and pray that it does not come to pass.

So, what can we do about this?

1.) The Joint Council has launched an emergency campaign for the children of Ethiopia. Please sign the petition today by clicking on the word "petition". You can read more about the proposed changes and the emergency campaign on this blog. The petition will be sent to Ethiopia on this Friday so don't put off signing.

2.) Forward this information onto friends and family. The more voices that are heard, the better chance we have to make change.

3.) Pray for all of the children and families affected by this change.

Thank you for your help!

The Pells

Old Roomies

Last weekend, Johnny was able to reunite with one of his roommates from Hannah's Hope. The special mothers called them brothers as they arrived around the same time to the orphanage and were only a month apart.

A lot has changed. They have both grown from babies to toddlers. Isaiah is now bigger than Johnny. They are starting to talk. But, one thing has not changed...they are still the two cutest little boys I have seen.....

We caught up with some kisses.......
A little bit of basketball........
Some crib jumping......
And a whole lot of fun.......

It was so great to see how well he was doing and catch up with the Fleming family. Hope to make a better habit of getting together this coming year.

"The thud of your babies head......."

When Emma was five months old she rolled off the bed onto our hardwood floor. We were getting ready for a Christmas party and John ran upstairs to join me in getting ready (our clothes are located upstairs while our bedroom is downstairs......we live in an old house with no closet space....very annoying sidenote) Emma had just started wiggling around and we were really used to being able to leave her on our bed. I asked John where she was and he sarcastically said "I left her on the edge of the bed"....then he got this look on his face and raced down the stairs. Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs we both hear a thud and screaming. She had fallen face first off the bed. We calmed her down and pulled out our baby book to see what to do. John felt horrible, he was in tears as well. The section on head trauma began with "One of the worst sounds that a new parent can hear is the thud of their babies head as it hits the ground...". We felt a tiny bit better that this had obviously happened to others.

Then when Emma was around 8 months old, while I was standing next to the bed blow drying my hair, she fell off the bed again. I just missed catching her as she fell of the bed and hit her face on the hardwood floor. Ahhhhhhh!!! Really, we let it happen again? Now we are borderline horrible parents.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, we got the kids to bed and were chatting with friends and we hear that same thud and scream. Emma is now three and a half but had somehow rolled off the bed and hit her face on that same wood floor again (the kids share a room so if Johnny is not asleep before Emma she starts in our bed before we take her to her bed) The other two times we should have known better but really......again???!! Poor girl. Here are some photo's of her fat lip and black eye.......