Our homestudy was EASY! The only part that was a drag was gathering our documents... birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc. We found a private social worker do to our homestudy for $450. FIngerprinting and backround checks were under $50 total. Texas requires atleast one post placement visit and it was $100. (If you are in the Houston area, I can recommend someone... feel free to email me at
kellygreent@aol.com) The only other expense I can think of is a physical exam which may be covered by your health insurance.
We live in the Houston area but we hired an attorney in Dallas to handle both of our adoptions because he was an expert and was affordable. His flat fee was $2500 plus expenses which were about $800. It was a pretty flexible payment plan. The first $600 was due once the BParents signed. The next payment was $200 and it was due about 4 months later. The final payment of $2500 was due at finalization (which is usually done 6 months after the child is in your home) and we had plenty of time to save for that. Also, our attorney accepted credit cards.
Just incase you didn't know, there is an adoption tax credit of $10,000. You will receive a credit of up to $10,000 of your adoption expenses. You can find out more about how it works on the IRS website or by talking to your CPA. Essentially, if your adoption is under $10k and your yearly income is less than $150k, you adoption could be free. We took out a low interest loan and repayed it with our adoption tax credit.