[kathyandmark]

We are just starting the process and I have info. packets from a variety of agencies coming in the mail or via. e-mail. But what I am noticing is that NO ONE tells you up front how much it costs to adopt an infant domestically. We have friends who adopted in Maine 5 years ago for about $6000, and I know that was on the low end. Any thoughts appreciated. Kathy

[mommamarci]

What are you open to? Some agencies charge less for AA or biracial children. Are you open to race? I know of one agency that has a special needs program that is a very low fee. Are you open to special needs? (Not all are severe, from what I have heard.) Some agencies charge a percentage of income. Our total adoption cost us just under 15k. However, we will be able to claim almost 11k on our taxes. So, it will end up costing us $4000! Yes we had to come up with the money up front, but not too bad in the long run. (One thing to keep in mind with the tax credit is it can, and probabaly will be, split up over several years if your income is lower because your liability will be lower. We think ours will take 2-3 years to claim.)

Agecnies do not specifially say, "here is the fee." because there are too many unkowns. However, they should be able to give you an estimate. There should be a set fee for home study, placement, post placements, etc. The legal fee should be a pretty good estimate (can change if something unforeseen comes up.) However, most states allow living expenses for bmoms and (I think) all allow medical expenses. So, that could be several thousand more dollars. In Indiana, there is a cap of $3000 on living expenses and in Ohio, they don't allow them. However, most states don't have a cap. You need to work out a budget abd then talk to the agencies and let them know you only want to be shown to situations where emom has medical insurance and does not require a lot of living expenses.

I hope this helps.

[ourdreamcametru]

We did a private domestic newborn adoption through our attorney and the cost was just under $6000. Sorry I can't help with the use of an angency! We are in TN

[Emster]

Our agency lined out their fees, estimated legal fees and birthparent expenses at our first meeting. After the adoption, I went through and totaled our expenses, and it was right on the money.

[Wisdom]

Dear Ourdreamcametrue:
Can you share how going through an adoption attorney works? Did you find the birthmom on your own or did you first go to your attorney and he located the birthmom?

[jaenelle]

Anywhere from about $1,000 to over $35,000 depending on the situation. Ours was around $18,000 -- we adopted a healthy newborn girl who is full African-American.

[ourdreamcametru]

Sure Wisdom,
Our daughter's birthmother found us through a friend of a friend, we were not looking to adopt so we didn't have anything in place. We talked to her on the phone, met her in person and then set an appointment with our attorney, referred to us by our friend who used her for adoption. We met with the attorney together and learned all the rules we had to follow as far as money we could/couldn't spend etc. Since we met almost 4 months before the baby was due we got to go to several dr's visits and get to know "E" very well. Our attorney set our home study up for us and handles all the paperwork and court work. We saw our attorney four times during the process, once at the first meeting, once at the hospital when Castle was born, once at the five day court date for surrender and once at our final court date! Everything went very smoothly for us and we were able to get every penny of our adoption fees back the year our daughter was born on our taxes. If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask!
Kelley

[mom2sam]

Our 1st adoption was a private adoption, our birthmom found us through mutual acquiantances. We paid for our homestudy, our lawyer fees, her lawyer fees and any of her medical bills that her parents insurance didn't cover, plus travel, hotel, and all the paperwork that accompanies the homestudy. It cost about $7500, but when we filed our taxes we were able to use the adoption tax credit.

The agency we are working with now has a set fee for homestudy (2,000) and then a placement fee (7500) and then post-placement (1500) They are all due at different times but it's based on a sliding fee scale. I like that they are up front so you know what to expect.
Kelsie

[HappyTwinsMom]

We used a private, non-profit agency. Our fees and out-of-pocket expenses like travel and such came to just under $14,000 for twins (full fee plus 2/3). Fortunately for us, there were no birthmom expenses. Not sure we could have afforded it. As it is, we just finishing paying off the loan last spring (when the "babies" turned 5).

[kelceesmom]

We adopted with the use of a facilitator. Our costs, with bmom expenses was right around $18,000.

[Poleczech]

In my experience (which is only one adoption), whatever you think its going to cost, budget for at least a third more -- I wish we had. We are waiting on our tax refund so we can pay off some credit card expenses we ran up because of unexpected attorney fees. We basically felt we had no choice but to use this one particular attorney referred to us by our agency (long story) and his fees are, IMHO, outrageously high and I feel this attorney takes advantage of people who are highly emotional and despirate for everything to work out. We also started out with a bmother who was on medicaid, so we had no expenses, until her boyfriend threw her out on the street and we ended up putting her up in a hotel for the month before the birth (limited resources in the area where she was living and we are in another state). The hotel would not give us a break on the rates and we ended up spending as much on the hotel room for one month as we could have spent on rent for a one bedroom apartment for four months. We were also then expected to pay for clothes and other expenses until she was six weeks post partum. So we have ended up spending about $6,000 MORE than what we originally budgeted for, which meant draining our savings, remortgagring our house, and now waiting impatiently for a tax refund to put ourselves back to where we would have been before the unexpected expenses kept hitting us one right after the other.

But, even though it ended up costing a whole lot more than we thought, we have a beautiful, handsome, healthy little boy, and we are now awaiting our court date for finalization. We cannot imagine not having ds in our lives (I can't even remember life now before he came along, because it just seems so natural for him to be our son).

So my best advice to you is, figure out what you can afford, think about the type of adoption you are comfortable with, talk with several agencies, count on the unexpected, and then enjoy every second you have with your bundle of joy once he/she is in your arms.

Best wishes

[Ocean1]

Originally Posted by ourdreamcametru

We did a private domestic newborn adoption through our attorney and the cost was just under $6000. Sorry I can't help with the use of an angency! We are in TN

I live in TN as well and am looking to start the process? What was your experinece? How about the wait? The agency I am looking at are in the 20thousand range? Thanks!

[nikkianni]

Our agency gave us a schedule of payments at our first meeting. Everything was outlined and set. A certain amount for homestudy, at match, at placement and for legals. They stuck to within $250 of those amounts, and that was mostly mileage for visits and an extra filing fee.
Michigan allows birthparents expenses but Eve's birthmom had none. We too would've been strapped to try to pay anything more so we were very thankful.
Our entire adoption cost us about $9,000. $7,500 of that was the agency. The rest was for payments to an online site to list our profile.
There are agencies out there that don't cost an arm and a leg. Keep looking, ask other couples for referrals. That's how we found ours.
Good luck!

[ourdreamcametru]

Ocean1,
We had already met our birthmother independently so we didn't use an attorney who finds birthmothers. I'll pm you the information on our attorney.
Kelley

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by kathyandmark

We are just starting the process and I have info. packets from a variety of agencies coming in the mail or via. e-mail. But what I am noticing is that NO ONE tells you up front how much it costs to adopt an infant domestically. We have friends who adopted in Maine 5 years ago for about $6000, and I know that was on the low end. Any thoughts appreciated. Kathy

I adopted an African American newborn in 1998 for $2100.00 total. The agency didn't pass birthmother fees on to the adoptive parents and I didn't need an attorney.

In 2005, I adopted an African American 4 month old for $3100. This included the agency fee, the attorney fee and court costs. The agency (NY) charged on a sliding scale.

Both agencies charged the same fees for caucasian, african american and mixed race infants.

It's possible to adopt for a lower cost but you have to do your research. Get out the phone book and call every agency listed until you find one that you like AND can afford.