[dfreeman]

My husband and I are interested in adopting an african-american biracial newborn. However, as I have been researching I am finding the costs to be a bit much. My husband and I are working middle class and we do not have large chunks of money sitting around like that. Have anyone had any experience with adopting biracial african american newborns at a not so expensive cost.

[circlewoodlady]

I know a woman who has two biracial children from adoption. She is a school assistant and I know she doesnt have loads of money but I believe if you have faith and keep at it it will work out.

[dfreeman]

Originally Posted by circlewoodlady

I know a woman who has two biracial children from adoption. She is a school assistant and I know she doesnt have loads of money but I believe if you have faith and keep at it it will work out.

Thank you and we will!

[hdc77494]

Not sure you will see this, but the foster system has many many biracial newborns available almost daily. Some are straight adoption, and some Are legal risk. Adoption from the foster care system is generally FREE, AND the children are automatically classified as special need for the 11,500 adoption tax credit. Some states will even pay you a subsidy until the child turns 18, and you can keep Medicaid for the child. Here in Texas, they even offer free college through a PhD for most minority children.

In the private adoption system, you will find the mothers generally come from the same background as CPS moms, and many have the same issues. I hate to say this, but our experience has been children available for adoption privately are priced by race. The most expensive is a newborn Caucasian baby girl, and the price drops precipitously from there. I have seen a 30,000 price spread between a white female newborn and a black male. Over the past year, I have seen prices as low as 7,000. We got a call today asking us to accept placement of an eight month old Caucasian/Hispanic baby boy. He was in the care of a grandmother who told CPS she can no longer care for the child. The mom is young, homeless, and pregnant. Two weeks ago we had a six month old baby boy and his two year old sister. Both had been left in the care of a five year old who set the kitchen on fire. When the fire department arrived, there were no adults present. Foster/adoption agencies are begging people to accept newborns, some of whom stay an extra week or more at the hospital because there is literally no home for them to go to. The two kids from the fire? They slept on the floor of the office for three days waiting for a home. Please consider it.

[Dickons]

In the private adoption system, you will find the mothers generally come from the same background as CPS moms, and many have the same issues.

Really? How do you know this and what exactly is the same background they come from?

Regards,
Dickons

[crick]

HDC - That is EXACTLY the type of blatant stereotype we as a site work EXTREMELY hard to correct and educate on. How offensive to our many first moms who made a decision to place their children. They did not do drugs, they did NOT abuse their children, nor do anything to warrant a removal like a mom from the CPS system.

Be very very careful in the future not to make up such information. We don't accept or allow such blatant and incorrect stereotypes presented, especially when all it does is create harm towards a side of the triad.

[DianeS]

Originally Posted by hdc77494

AND the children are automatically classified as special need for the 11,500 adoption tax credit.

This is not true. The definition of "special needs" for IRS purposes is defined by each state, and newborns are rarely considered "special needs" based on race alone, but instead the child would have to have a medical, physical, or psychological issue (or risk of an issue) in order to be given that designation at birth. If they don't have an issue or risk of an issue at birth, then they have to reach a certain age before they are designated special needs.

In my state, minority-group children are not considered special needs until 6 years of age. Caucasian children not until age 8.

In Texas, a minority-group child must be at least two years of age before the child's ethnic/racial group status alone gets that child the special needs designation. A caucasian child must be at least age 6.

To sum up, children in foster care ARE NOT automatically designated "special needs". Which means they are not automatically eligible for the entire adoption tax credit (or any of the other benefits you mentioned). Some get designated "special needs" for one reason or another, but not healthy newborns like the OP is inquiring about.

[eagleswings216]

Originally Posted by hdc77494

In the private adoption system, you will find the mothers generally come from the same background as CPS moms, and many have the same issues.

hdc, I'm not sure where you get your information, but out b-mom is certainly not from the same background as "cps moms". I was a special ed teacher for 7 years, and believe me, I worked with LOTS of families that were involved with cps. I know quite a few people who have adopted, and aside from the ones who went through foster care, most of them have similar backgrounds to our b-mom, and are nothing like the cps cases I have known.

[mommy2fiveplus]

I strongly belive that people should not go into foster care with the intent to adopt. Straight adopt from foster care is one thing, but to actually foster children in RU with the sole purpose to adopt leads people to situations they can not handle. By advising a person who is wanting to adopt to go to the foster care system is doing a huge disservice to that family and the children in care.

Additionally, foster adoption is different in every state and I would love to know where you are talking about and how you came up with the scenerios you suggested, because I have yet to encounter anything like that in my 8 years as a foster parent and over 20 years as a foster sibling.

[hdc77494]

Ok, almost. Even if you get a newborn placement, by the time the Tpr process is completed and CPS completes the adoption process, the child will be two when you present them to the IRS. In our case, the children were two and three, a minority sibling group, when we did finalization. While some CPS kids show no signs of emotional or physical trauma, kids come into care for a reason. we are repeatedly told that issues may not become known till the children are school age. Those children neglected but not abused are frequently neglected while the parent parties or self medicated with drugs, and the parents have undiagnosed mental illness. with all that, it's fairly easy for any CPS child to be classified special needs. So you have two routes, one, minority siblings over 2 automatically qualify, two, a large percentage of the remaining children adopted suffered trauma or abuse or drug exposure that makes them eligible as well. But I agree that, no, for many it is not automatic.

The minority sibling group over two was presented to us as the qualifier for college funding. No one actually said it was the qualifier for classification of special needs, though it makes sense.

[hdc77494]

I would love to know where you are talking about and how you came up with the scenerios you suggested, because I have yet to encounter anything like that in my 8 years as a foster parent and over 20 years as a foster sibling.

I'm not sure what scenarios you are talking about. The placements I mentioned were our own, I will be happy to clarify.

[dfreeman]

Thank u guys for all the advice, but my husband and I are going ahead theough an adoption agency. The agency that we are dealing with are promoting and encouraging pre-natal care which is one of the reasons to go with the agency. Also, we would like the experience of a newborn. Maybe after, the first one we will look into foster care, but I am a teacher in a public system. I know what comes into the foster system as well because I deal with them in my classroom.

However, my OP was about financing ideals for the adoption process. We are not interested in home equity financing. Grants would be nice. I do know that he will make a way.

[eagleswings216]

We never had much luck finding grants (we are both teachers), but there are some. Check out Steven Curtis Chapman's organization, which I know has some grants: showhope.org

There are supposedly other grants out there, but like I said, we didn't have much luck finding things.

[BethanyB]

Are you an AA couple or are you adopting transracially? The reason I'm asking is because children do tend to be "priced" according to race with AA boys being at the bottom of the basket. Sad but true.

If you are adopting transracially, I hope that you have explored what that would mean for your family and if your environment is one where your child would thrive. I know money is a big deal when you don't have a lot but I would hate for it to be a main factor in choosing a child to adopt. Not saying that is what you are doing, just putting it out there.

You should try looking for an agency that has a sliding scale based on income. That might help you out. There are agencies that have lower cost programs for minority children but they certainly don't exisit in all states. Back when I was looking at adoption agencies, there were two in Chicago that looked good. Can't say personally as I didn't use them. I ended up going through the fost/adopt program in my state.

Oh and my children came from foster care and they are amazing kids. Super smart and well behaved. Kids like that come from the foster care system too!