[sak9645]

Let me just add a couple of things.

1. CHINA does not discount fees. The same orphanage donation is required for NSN and SN children, because the funds go to offsent the costs of caring for your child before adoption and other children who may never be adopted. If anything, the cost of caring for SN children is greater than the cost of caring for NSN children, as they need more medical care and therapies and, often, things like special foods, special bottles, and so on.

2. Individual agencies, at their discretion, may discount or eliminate THEIR portion of the total fees, in order to get kids with special needs adopted. However, these discounts are rarely given for kids with very minor SNs; they are usually reserved for kids that are truly "hard to place" because they have conditions such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation, severe cerebral palsy, and so on.

3. The agencies that are best able to discount fees are those with a strong donor base, because the agencies have to survive somehow, if they don't get paid for placing children. Look for agencies that have a strong reputation for promoting special needs adoptions.

4. Do remember that an agency can offset only its component of total fees, It cannot discount fees that must be paid to others, such as airlines, hotels, the USCIS, the orphanage donation, the homestudy provider, etc. The agency fee is NOT the major component of an adoption's costs.

Sharon