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We had several cards with very low interest rates, one from our credit union and one from USAA (organization for military people and their dependents) So the interest was not bad. Also with MIranda whose adoption cost 2x what Sam's did we had the per child tax credit which went a long way to paying off interest and the following year we got the adoption tax credit which paid off the balance.
Now since our adoptions were domestic neither one was too terribly expensive compared to waht others pay. The biggest expense in Miranda's adoption were the ones involving travel and inter state stuff. I literaslly doubled our costs.
MOnica,
adoptions are expensive becasue they involve expensive professional services. Counseling, medical and legal services that are just not cheap. In most situations if you had to pay for those services per hour for anything else it would probably cost more. Also agencies provide tons of social services to people in crisis pgs. If 100 expectant parents come to an agency for help they receive counseling, sometimes help with housign and medical expenses. Often these esrvices can cost thousands of dollars. Now the statistics are that only about 8-10 of those expectant families will actuall place thier babies and it is the fees that the adoptive parents pay that underwrite the cost of those social serivces. In other countries the government pays for that stuff. We as a society don't believe in that level of government support or the taxation to pay for it so the cost is born by adoptive families.
As for it taking so long that is a more complex question. For instance if you are open to race and can afford to advertise widely you would probably have a baby in a matter of days. If you live ina state with a smaller population adoptions can take longer, if you are only willing to work with agen cies that don't charge fees there is a good chance you will wait longer because those agencies can't afford the same kind of outreach that ones who charge can and often don't have the kind of services to attract and keep expectant parents. I you have very limited criteria for the kind of child you can adopt you might wait longer. There rae a limited number of babies available every year and if you rule out a majority of them then chances are that you might wait longer. Then there is the plain old luck factor. many adoptons happen out of the blue where someone knows someone who knows someone. IF you are a very private person and don't share that you are thinking about adoption with your friends, family and coworkers you will never hear about those kinds of situations.
Why adoptions from fostercare take so long is usually becasue of the lack of funding to the agtencies that provide those services. Sometimes the SW are so over loaded that they just don't have time to process your information. Then there are states that still have reunification at all costs biases. IN those states or even in counties within those states you will often find kids in fostercare for years before they are freed for adoption. In other states like CA, NY,NJ,IL you rarely find young children available for adoptions because they were placed in fosteradopt at a very youn g age and adopted by their foster family. Nearly 60,000 chidlren every eyar find homes that way and the number is growing as it builds on itself. States get a bounty for every child placed for adoption so not only does it cost them less to maintain the child but they get a bonus for placing them. When you do this enough suddenly your state agency has more funds to lower SW case loads and recruit more famlies which in turn means more kids placed from fostercare and more funds to improve the system. It is sad to say but far too many state run agencies have not figured this out.
As difficult as the system is in this country it is far more flexible then in most places. Here the vast majority of people CAN adopt. We have fewer restrictions and very few policies that actively discourage adoption like sme countries do. It certainly is not perfect but I perfere it to the systems described in most countries.
lisa
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