You may be wondering what should go in your adoption profile book aka your “lifebook”. If you find yourself overwhelmed with creating your family’s book, these three tips should help you on your way. Lifebook Tip #1: Be AuthenticYou want to share information about yourselves, but more importantly, you want to paint a picture of what life would be like for […]

Did you know that when adopting a child from state custody, there are resources out there to assist an adoptive family if certain criteria is met?

Building a family through adoption can quickly become very expensive. In 1996, the federal adoption tax credit was first introduced to allow families to deduct qualified adoption expenses from the total amount of taxes they owed. However, this tax credit is non-refundable, meaning that it can only be claimed by families with tax liability. Unfortunately, this generally excludes lower income families from receiving any benefit. In addition, income restrictions mean that families in high tax brackets may receive a reduced credit. Taxpayers who make more than $243,540 or more annually are not eligible to receive the credit, and phaseouts apply for taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income over $203,540 per annum.

“I’M SORRY!” were the first words I, Alex, ever said to Jordan. We met in 2013 during our first year at the University of Tulsa School of Law when I spilled a giant sweet tea all over Jordan’s book bag…right as class was about to start. I was so upset over the thought that I had just ruined this random girl’s bag, but Jordan did not even bat an eye. In fact, to hear her tell the story, all she remembers was how I clumsily spilled my tea everywhere and then proceeded to crawl around on all fours trying to covertly clean everything while the criminal law professor started introducing the Model Penal Code. Moral of the story: some of the best friendships are born out of unlikely circumstances.