a few detailed quest's about tax credit

Okay, I have researched this quite a bit and think I can claim my expenses this year but I have a few more questions. First of all, do the expenses have to apply to a specific child or just an adoption in general? In other words, can I claim fees that we paid to our agency - they are not fees to adopt a specific child, just agency fees. We have since pulled out of the agency and plan to adopt independently later. We did talk with one specific birthmother during the time we were signed up with the agency but she ended up being a scam. However, most of the expenses we paid were not due to her, but just the agency fees to adopt in general. Okay, secondly, about the tax CREDIT, I'm not an accountant by any means and am not very good at this stuff, so I am understanding that if we work, and we pay taxes (which we do), then we will qualify. So say we went to do our taxes and without the tax credit we came out even. We didn' t have to pay in and they (the IRS) don't owe us anything. do we still qualify? does it not have anything to do with how much we get back as a refund?? I know, that is probably dumb. I'm a little confused. Does it have to do with our tax refund or just how much we paid in the whole year? Hope that made sense. Thanks. Glenda