"And that's just for one year. When you place children with families, you're preventing incarceration, you're preventing drug use -- which could hurt society by crimes committed or drug rehabilitation. I think investing $13,000 in a child, you are preventing a lot of serious costs to society on a future basis."

Bethany lists the average cost of its domestic infant adoption fees at $18,000. But the true cost to the agency is around $26,000, meaning Bethany already is subsidizing adoption costs, Blacquiere said. Adoption agencies, he said, cannot simply lower their fees to make up for the elimination of the tax credit.

Eliminating the tax credit, he believes, would result in fewer families adopting.

"I think there would be a lot of families who could not afford adoption," he said. "Even now, with the adoption tax credit, there a families who are taking out loans. They are doing second mortgages. You take away the credit, and they probably couldn't even get the loans."

A stand-alone bill (H.R. 4373) to make the adoption tax credit permanent was introduced this year by Rep. Bruce Braley, D.-Iowa, and has 18 co-sponsors. Some, though, believe a stand-alone will make little progress in Congress and that the tax credit -- if Congress supports it -- will have to be extended through passage of a larger tax bill.

Learn ways to help save the adoption tax credit at http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/ and facebook.com/AdoptionTaxCredit.

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress ) and in your email ( baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

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