[nichole77]

Hello Everyone,

So my DH and I have been going back and forth on adoption for probably the last year. Long story short: I've been ready, he hasn't. But now, he says he's ready. Thats great news right!? So now, I'm trying to figure out if we can even swing an adoption financially. I'm open to any race -he's not, but with good reasons. He's cautious and I'm optimistic and probably a little laid back. I know we can love a child of any color. He worries about the child being able to identify with his/her adopted culture, especially once that child is older. That is another topic all together.

My question is: is it possible to adopt a CC infant for around $15K. If so, what agency/attorney did you use? Did these fees include legal, birthmother, homestudy fees? Did you have to wait years or was it in a reasonable amount of time?

Please PM any info you may have.

Thanks,
Nichole

[mondk]

First off, it is really sad that your husband only wants a CC child when so many biracial and AA kids are out there needing good homes. We are full CC and adopted a biracial child and we are SO blessed. He is more than I ever hoped for...he is our sweet precious boy. We plan to expose him to others of his color, biracial or full AA as well as CC. We do live in a small community, but are near big cities and plan to take him to playgroups, etc...

Anyway, good luck adopting a full CC infant for around $15k...if you decide to foster, you can get a child and they usually pay you monthly...so your actual cost would be minimal. If you live in or near a big city, you could actually get a newborn.

Our biracial private domestic adoption attorney adoption cost us around $16k...that is NOT including the homestudy, ICPC fees, post placement visits, travel, etc. Our total with everything is probably between $20k-$23k.

Some agencies are income-based, but you are still looking at spending at least $10k for agency fees. I have yet to hear of any cheaper. Some people here though advertised themselves and didn't go through agencies; perhaps they will chime in and maybe it is cheaper; I don't know for sure though.

Anyway, good luck!

Blessings, Michelle

[powderpiggy]

It is absolutely possible. We did an independent adoption using an adoption attorney in our state. Our DS's birthmom found us online. And all expenses totaled less than 15K. Our DS is CC but we did not specify that as a requirement. I do not know if there is an agency that costs less than 15K, perhaps there is. But independent/private adoptions often cost less (more money now for DS's college). If you go that route though, you have to do all the leg work yourself.

[mommy3]

Nichole -- I pm'd you. The agency we used twice for adoption doesn't charge a different fee for ethnicity (which I'd have had a BIG problem with) but does have a sliding scale based on family income. It's totally possible to adopt a child via some agencies for $15K. susan

[SupaModel]

Originally Posted by nichole77

Hello Everyone,

So my DH and I have been going back and forth on adoption for probably the last year. Long story short: I've been ready, he hasn't. But now, he says he's ready. Thats great news right!? So now, I'm trying to figure out if we can even swing an adoption financially. I'm open to any race -he's not, but with good reasons. He's cautious and I'm optimistic and probably a little laid back. I know we can love a child of any color. He worries about the child being able to identify with his/her adopted culture, especially once that child is older. That is another topic all together.

My question is: is it possible to adopt a CC infant for around $15K. If so, what agency/attorney did you use? Did these fees include legal, birthmother, homestudy fees? Did you have to wait years or was it in a reasonable amount of time?

Please PM any info you may have.

Thanks,
Nichole

Nicole there is NOTHING wrong with your husband knowing what he wants. I would rather he be honest now instead of getting a child and then have issues later. NO matter what ANYONE says you must do what's right for your family.

That being said my adoption total was around 21k and he was considered BR (even though I would say AA, His bmom is BR and bdad is AA).

[fisbaby]

I completely agree with SupaModel, don't feel bad about what you want. That's your family's decision and no one else's. We wanted a newborn caucasion also and that's just how it is. Some people want AA, some want biracial, some want caucasion, some don't care, some want perfect health, some want special needs. There's no right and wrong what you want, you just have to decide and go with it!

I wish I could help on the $15K though, ours was about 1.5 - 2x that. I would love to find a less expensive one for #2 but so far I haven't found much luck. All of the ones that are less expensive have huge waits or are not taking couples who want full caucasion children.

[sadiegirl]

I would like to echo the "race thing".

Yes, there are lots of BR and AA babies to adopt but your DH should not feel bad and/or pressured to adopt any baby that he's not "comfortable" with.

It may be "wrong" in the eyes of some people but MANY people-myself included-have families that would just give them and the child absolute grief over the color of their skin.

It sucks but I would not put my child through that.

Don't have any advice about 15K though...GOOD LUCK!

[aallen25]

We did an independant adoption and paid less than 6k. What we paid covered counseling, attorney fees, and all of the other little fees that go along with adoption...the attorney driving to the hospital/court for finalization, the mailing of documents, the filing of documents, etc. In my state you do not have to do a homestudy if you do an independant adoption so we did not have that fee.
DD is 3/4 CC and 1/4 Asian. Our wait was extremely short as we met Shiloh's birth mom through a coworker of mine less than a month after deciding to adopt.

[Stormster]

Alicia I'm shocked you can do an adoption of any kind anywhere without a home study!??? I'm sorry I know it made it easy and inexpensive for you but that is scary stuff.

We did a CC adoption for under 15K. The thing that brought it over was the ICPC stay. That can get VERY expensive. (we also had about 25K in failed match and placement expenses) so I don't know if that counts. Lots of risks emotionally and financially on the domestic private route.

It's def. possible but not easy.

[ourdreamcametru]

I don't think there is anything wrong with your husband knowing what he wants and think it's a good thing that he is making that known now instead of after you bring a baby into your home. Everyone has things that they are open to, race, medical issues, openess with bfamily. You are doing the right thing by talking it through now. Yes, it is possible to adopt a full cc newborn on $15,000. Our daughter's birthmother found us and then we hired an attorney. Our fees were just under $6000 for everything including homestudy and some birthmother living expenses. Our daughter is 1/2 Philipino but we have friends who have two beautiful full cc children which were adopted the very same way as our daughter. Good luck!

[aallen25]

Stormster- It was basically left up to Shiloh's birth mom whether she wanted a homestudy done or not. We would gladly have done one if she had wanted one. Like you, we had 4-5 months to get to know K and her family and for K to get to know us. We had her and her father over for a cookout a couple times, I took K to doctor's appts, we went to the movies/window shopping at the mall a few times to give her something to do, I visited her at her dad's house a few times. We built a relationship with her and got to know eachother to the point where she was comfortable without one.

[aallen25]

I do understand what you're saying though.

[aallen25]

One more thing, sorry! Just to clarify, if we had been matched through the attorney we would have had to do one and gone through the post placement visits as well, etc. It's only because K and I got in touch with eachother on our own that is wasn't required by law here.

[Stormster]

Alicia omigoodness I wasn't questioning your adoption! I know you are great!

[Lumpkin]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Alicia I'm shocked you can do an adoption of any kind anywhere without a home study!???

I was shocked by that too, but I did find that Georgia doesn't require a Homestudy, and it seems that many states don't require a homestudy if you're a "close relative". In our case, being a relative meant that we didn't need to do a homestudy, or wait any amount of time before finalization (one court date, and we were finalized).

Interestingly enough (and scary enough too!) we simply stated that we were the relative to a sibling group, and everything was done quickly, and without all of the paperwork. We literally never showed our ID to anyone, never showed any proof of relationship to the children, etc. I did swear in court that I was the child's relative, but that's it. It's baffling (and again scary!) how easily anyone could actually make this claim and skip right through all the red tape with just a little social engineering.