I have no problems telling people the cost of our adoption, in particular what the fees pay for (which helps to remind people that we are not "buying" a child). It should not be a secret that adoption comes with a price - and frankly, I think domestic is a lot less than people imagine (almost everyone I talked to while we were making our initial decision thought international was cheaper. HA!) If I tell one person about the fees and that helps them realize that they CAN adopt, than I've done my good deed for the day
P.S. Our agency also had a sliding scale fee and our fee (not including costs associated with travel, unpaid maternity leave, etc) will be $14,000.
***NOTE - After reading some other later posts and taking into account the discomfort people have with talking about money, as it relates to how much they make (i.e can and can not afford), I should note that I am a long-time payroll professional (now a Sr. Mgr.) and in my business salaries are all I deal with - so they lost a LOT of their secret "mystique" in my head a long time ago. Its part of my job to keep people's salaries a secret, but in my own mind they are just numbers, nothing special - no matter what the dollar amount.