Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 38

Adoption: Costs increasing for families "A lot of families are looking for a healthy infant as their hrst option. There are very few healthy infants here in the f.S." who are put up for adoption. Kathy Yates Adoption Resource Center in Jackson Continued From 1 on the country. Higher airline fares, and adoption fees and services are a few reasons the cost of international adoptions have increased. To offset expenses, some are taking advantage of federal and state tax breaks.

"The foreign countries have really added a lot onto their fees on their end as well," Yates said. The most costly item for parents is travel to their child's country. Many countries require the parents to stay there for a week or two, and Russia requires the parents to visit twice. But many families choose the international route because it sometimes is faster, especially if the family wants an infant Adopting an infant in the United States generally takes a year. Adopting abroad frequently takes a year to several years, depending on the country.

"A lot of families are looking for a healthy infant as their first option," Yates said. "There are very few healthy infants here in the U.S." who are put up for adoption. The urgency to become a parent soon overrides the costs, said Nancy Cannon of Adoption Associates in Lansing. "They come to adoption and feel that at least at the end they'll have a baby for sure," she said. That was the case for the Barclay family of Lansing.

Suzanne Elms-Barclay and her husband, Richard, adopted their sons, Peter, 18, and David, 15, from Korea when they were infants. Then, in 1984 and 1987, the adoptions cost about $5,000 each. The family gave up things such as new cars and a bigger house to afford the adoptions. "We just had it be our highest priority," Suzanne Elms-Barclay said. If the Barclays were adopting today, some of the cost could be recouped through a $10,000 federal tax credit.

The credit, which was doubled to that amount in 2001, is for parents who adopt any child, domestically or from helped Tim and Gretchen Tier-ney of Grand Rapids, who adopted their son, Nicholas, 12, from India in 1991, and their daughter, Ellie, 6, from Korea in 1996. "It's pretty much a cash business," Tim Tierney said. The adoptions cost $8,000 and $14,000, respectively. That's why he pushed his employer, Fifth Third Bank, to start a loan program for adoptive parents a first of its kind in Michigan. The bank offers a home equity loan for up to 100 percent of the home's value over as many as 20 years with a half-point discount on the interest rate.

"(Adoption) is already a stressful event as it is," Tierney said. "We just wanted to let people know that there's another option." So far, 20 people have applied for the loans since the program started in July. There's other help for adoptive parents. At least one airline has found its way into the adoption market, looking to add passengers and sfGirl marks end of dot-com era fill international flights. Northwest Airlines, the main carrier out of Lansing's Capital City Airport, offers adoptive parents 50 percent to 65 percent off round-trip fares to foreign countries.

That would save a lot on a ticket from say Detroit to Seoul, South Korea, which ranges from $950 to $1,800. The airline also waives penalty fees for cancellations and changes. Many parents fly to Korea, China and Russia to pick up their kids, said Mary Beth Schubert, a Northwest spokeswoman. "We have recognized that international adoptions can be costly," she said. "Plus it worked out well for us since we have a lot of flights to that area of the world." And while parents appreciate the financial assistance, some insist it's not about money.

is a very loving act," Suzanne Elms-Barclay said. "Money was a secondary thing." Contact Susan Stock at 377-1015 or sstocklsj.com. For those looking to hobnob with the dot-com bigwigs, sfGirl was better than gold. Would-be dealmakers could cruise sfGirl for dates, times, places, and private RSVP info to get their feet in the door and chat up CEOs. In 1999, at the lavish Respond sfGirl got outsiders in so they could be treated to circus jugglers, contortionists and all the free champagne you could carry.

And when the Internet sector hit the skids, sfGirl hosted the first West Coast "pink, slip party" for freshly fired workers. nimn fe mmm '4 Once-feared in-house groups work out well for employers another country. The credit covers expenses, such as fees, paperwork and travel, up to $10,000. The exception is parents who adopt special-needs children they can get the $10,000 regardless of how much they spend. In 2001, Michigan started offering parents a $1,200 tax credit for adoption expenses but only after they exceed the federal limit.

The tax credits would have programs and activities, which include company events and community volunteer work. GE provides a meeting place and some funding for the organizations' special events and gives time off for national network meetings. The Women's Network has 13,500 members; the African American Forum, 3,000. The other two networks don't track membership. "In-house networks take valuable employees, give them the support and contacts they need, and make them even more valuable," Holzer said.

Cecilia Lofters, vice president and senior intellectual property counsel for GE, is a member of the African American Forum. "It's given me an opportunity to meet other African Americans, to have informal mentors and to get to know the company better," Lofters said. And Lofters, who recently went to the national meeting of her network in Washington also attended by top corporate executives says that her "participation certainly has helped me at all levels of the company." Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Patricia Beron had a ringside seat for the San Francisco Bay area's dot-com craze, from beginning to end. Her Web site sfgirl.com tipped outsiders and insiders alike to exclusive parties (and how to get into them) and profiled eligible movers and shakers. Now it too is gone, folded up last week by a solemn Beron.

"We had a ton of fun and will miss our interactions with you all," Beron wrote on the site. im 1 Hi t- -M- Networks' benefits include recruiting, development, more By Carol Kleiman Chicago Tribune Back in the 1970s, when women's networks were beginning to proliferate, many businesses considered in-house networks organized by employees of the same company as a threat to management. But today in-house networks, for both women and men, are viewed with approval: Companies encourage employees to form them. "In-house networks are important tools for people who want to get together for support and development so this is not rocket science anymore," said Sunita Holzer, vice president of human resources for General Electric headquartered in Fairfield, a diversified technology and services; company with 300,000 -employees worldwide and more than $13.7 billion in earnings last year. Holzer, who has a master's degree in labor relations and human resource management, also is director of GE's Global Employer of Choice, created in 2000 to develop diversity and global worklife issues.

An active networker, Holzer helps facilitate four in-house networks that are local chapters of organizations developed and open to all employees of General Electric Co. "Organizations have begun to realize that in-house networks also help the employer recruit more diverse talent, develop careers and provide mentoring," said Holzer, a member of the GE Women's Network, formed in 1997, and, as an Asian American, of the Asian Pacific American Forum, started in 1998. She also belongs to the African American Forum, organized in 1991, and of the Hispanic Forum, started in 1998. All in-house networks at GE are initiated and organized by employees. Membership is free and participants plan their own.