Politics and Parenting – Connecting the Dots
When you think about parenting, the idea of politic-ing probably doesn’t connect immediately for most of us. For many of us the idea of politics is rounded down to the choice of either being or not being politically correct. But what if the most correct thing we can do is be political?
When you’re an adoptive momma like me, you start to realize that one (and sometimes more than one) government had a great hand in how you formed your family…so maybe your family should exercise your say in government.
For example, right now, the Senator from Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, along with Senator Blunt (Montana) re-introduced the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act – a piece of legislation that literally made it possible for us to adopt our son. Talk about Big Government having a HUGE IMPACT on our little family. And we aren’t the only ones!
We recently learned that this tax credit when it was most recently refundable had a perfect score as far as 100% of the families receiving the credit actually used it toward adoption expenses – such as paying off homestudies, paying off attorney bills or building ramps for special needs children or funding much needed counseling for their new kiddos from hard places. 100%! This isn’t a perk for the uber-wealthy, or a loophole for those in the know. It is literally a piece of legislation with bipartisan support that’s sole purpose is to help families bring children home…Home, I say!
For those of you who have been impacted by adoption personally, and for those of you who have cheered on friends and family from the sidelines – you have held, tutored, and carpooled with the little lives this bill touched. You have seen these kids smile at you, and you have helped pray them home. Maybe the idea of calling your Senator or Congressional Rep feels foreign.
Maybe such an action doesn’t play easily into your already-busy schedule. It feels inconvenient and strange….totally get that…but I’m also guessing that for kids in care domestically in our foster care system and globally in orphanages and institutions – that feels inconvenient and strange too. So push pause on the busy, and take a quick second to check out adoptiontaxcredit.org . This group has made it super easy to find your congressional reps and make a short selfie-video about the need to vote YES on such an important bill!
Another great idea is to call your Reps’ staff personally. If they get 7 calls on one action item – it is given face time during their staff meeting because it means Their Constituents Care About it! So y’all – let’s make them care about the kids we care for. Let your voice be heard!