[issajohn]

If you got a loan, what type of loan was it.. secured or unsecured.. was your monthly payment reasonable?

Thanks!
Melissa

[lisa in venice]

With our independent adoptions we were able to stretch out some payments and finance the rest. For instance we were able to pay the Attorney's retainers in several payments, birth parents expenses in small monthly payments but the big chunks went on the credit card for our third adoption(low interest card) and on the home equity line for the fourth. In both cases the monthly payment were offset by the additional take home pay after my dh adjusted his witholdings to reflect a new little tax deduction. When we finalized we were able to pay it off with our tax credit. It took two years for the third adoption and I assume it will take the same for this one as well.

lisa

[LisaCA]

we decided not to go into debt for this, so we saved up the cash. We started a kid fund about 5 years ago, putting ten dollars in a week and upping that over time. by the time we decided to go forth, we had $18000 roughly, and spent all of it on dd this july. I suspect for the next adoption in about 2-3 years, we will end up taking a partial loan from our credit union.

LisaCA

[mumofone]

Because the only way to adopt in our area is through the public system, the only fee to us was to our lawyer who finalized our son's adoption.

Although the fees are low, it can take years for someone to adopt an infant. Luckily, it took us 3 months. We are waiting over 4 years now for our second child.

[icunurse]

We started by using our tax return, added in our credit union deductions, and, mainly, I had the luxury of working my butt off doing extra shifts (who'da thought I'd ever be so thrilled with anursing shortage - LOL Overtime and extra shift bonuses made up probably 3/4 of our totals. The next one will be a combo of our little savings here and there (since I am now mainly a SAHM) and our tax return (including the tax credit from the first adoption). I imagine that if I can convince my husband to go for a third that it will pretty much be the same thing.

[katieb31323]

For us we bought fixer upper homes and used the equity. We just finished our third house and are in process of adopting for the third time! A lot of work for sure but worth it!

Kathy

[tobeafamily]

Things we did:

1. Evaluated our expenses and cut some - not everything - but some things like no SCUBA trips, no expensive restaurants, carry lunch, etc. Went to the 'early bird' movies (6PM) instead of the 7:30 show.

2. Asked our friends and family to contribute to our 'baby fund' in lieu of gifts at Christmas and birthdays. Got many outright 'just because' contributions.

3. Sold stuff at garage sales. Told everyone who came we were hoping to adopt and raising money. Got lots of 'keep the change' and a few outright contributions.

4. Friends of ours made money doing parties like Homemade Gourmet, Pampered Chef, Mary Kay, etc. and getting money from the rep instead of prizes or free product. They made $500!

What we found was that first of all, we were able to save more easily than we thought. Secondly, since we adopted through domestic parental placement, we were actually able to pay-as-we-went - ended up using hardly any of our 'baby fund' now 'college fund' and instead cash flowed expenses.

HTH best of luck,

Regina

[DanniGirl]

We borrowed it from my mom. Our adoption was around $2,000 total though. We adopted our daughter from a girl I was friends with in grade school, she got pregnant and knew she couldnt parent.