[my_igit]

Both of our adoptions were agency assisted (they did the homestudy, and follow-ups, birthparent couseling, etc.) We networked and matched on our own. 1st adoption was 23,000 (13,000 was the hospital bill) and they 2nd one was 6,000. Don't forget the 10,500 tax credit. 45K does seem like A LOT to me also.

[chrisandaaron]

2 Agency Adoptions (including travel and hotel in our state)
2006- ~$10K
2008 ~ $11-12K

[shy_bear]

First adoption, with a private agency, $2,000. Second adoption, also with a private agency, $12,000. Third adoption of a newborn from foster care, $140.

[viannqueen]

Our domestic adoption through a private agency (healthy newborn) in 2008 was $17K. Though our travel fee's were 7K of that amount which is unusually high (lots of traveling back and forth, time spent out of state etc). Our DD's birthmother had medicaid and didn't need any financial assistance. Agency fee's were low because it was a religious run agency.

45K does seem A LOT to me. Though after going through years of being childless our daughter has brought more joy that I could have ever imagined. There's no price I wouldn't pay to have her with us, even if it meant making payments for the rest of my life YKWIM? If it feels right and you can afford it go for it. Best of luck.

[Sohmakun]

Originally Posted by aclee

For us, we paid a LOT more than we would have had to if we lived in another state. MA makes everything illegal but paying through the nose for everything. hehe...

You have to use an agency in MA....there just was no way it was going to be cheaper. If we had wanted to wait it out we might have found a situation in our state rather than traveling, but it only would have saved us about 3K...could have been a very long wait...

Actually Aclee, you could have done a non-resident adoption. The whole entire adoption could have been completed in a different state, throwing out your state's requirements and saving you from paying interstate compact fees. There are many states that allow you to do non-resident adoptions.

Another option is a designated adoption too. Using an out of state attorney to find your baby and then an agency to complete the adoption. Designated adoptions can cost about 7-9K not including the attorney's fees.

[aclee]

you don't even get a homestudy done? I guess I don't get it?

I would change anything...otherwise we wouldn't have Mr Bear...but for next time

We did not want to go with an attny...it's MY opinion that bmom's that place through an attny recieve less counceling and services than those that place through an agency. We paid the agency in MO for lifetime couceling for all of Ty's bfamily. It was a large part of our expense, and it wasn't something we had to do...we asked...we wanted that for them.

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by hipadres

I'm just looking for rough numbers for domestic adoptions. I thought we could do it for $30,000, but our first opportunity looks like it will actually cost $45,000 with travel, legal fees, and post placement costs. I'm so excited to have an opportunity to adopt, but this seems like a lot more than we anticipated. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!!

The first time I adopted in 1998, it was a private agency domestic adoption of an african american newborn girl. The total for everything came to $2100. M-K was born in DC. I am in Maryland. So I needed the ICPC but didn't have travel costs. The flat fee (placement fee) was $1200.00 regardless of race. There were no birthparent fees for any adoptions with the agency.

The second time I adopted in 2005, it was a private agency domestic adoption of an african american newborn girl. The total for everything came to $3000.00. Hanna was born in NY so I needed the ICPC. Since I was able to drive, the travel costs were minimal. The fee for the agency was based on a sliding scale and included the placement/cradle care..etc. This agency also did not pass birthparent fees on to the family.

For my latest adoption through foster care, of an asian/hispanic baby, there will be no cost at all. Well, I shouldn't say that. The emotional rollercoaster can cost you lots of lost sleep and worry.

[Sohmakun]

Originally Posted by aclee

you don't even get a homestudy done? I guess I don't get it?

Here's how the whole process works:

A non-resident adoption works kind of like an interstate adoption. You select an out of state attorney to help match you with a birth mother. That attorney, however, continues to do almost everything in the adoption, rather than transferring everything to your home state. After creating the adoptive match, he or she can offer counseling to the birth mother, make sure the child is placed with you from the hospital. arrange for the birth mother to sign her consent to adoption and arrange for your adoption to be finalized in its local court. An agency in your home state will only be needed to do any required home study work as determined by the laws of the state of where the child is born and the attorney is located. Unlike interstate adoption, where the laws of two states could conflict, in nonresident adoption, generally only the laws of the birth state will apply because everything is done there. But before you start your home study, make sure that your home study agency is aware of this before you start and then everything should be OK.

I hope that explains everything, when I first heard of it I was also confused but thankfully an experienced adoption attorney told me how it works!

[portlowski]

Domestic agency adoption in 2007--cost $26,000

The agency we used charges a flat rate. A small-ish amount to "enroll" ($1500) then a second larger amount ($5500)for the homestudy and then the bulk of the fee due at placement after tpr was signed.

Although the cost for adoption was high we felt it was worth it. We received excellent classes and counseling, post-adoption counseling and our son's birthmother had a completely seperate counselor who helped her make a parenting plan and examine all of her options before choosing adoption. Also the agency we used has a on-site nursery our son stayed in after his firstmom got out of the hospital so she could take extra before signing TPR. She didn't want to take him home, but she wasn't ready to say goodbye, so she chose this option.

[EZ2Luv]

Sohmakun,

I know you have tried to explain, but I am still very confused. I am not at all doubting this can be done, I am just not certain with the was the MA laws are that it would be possible.
In MA you must have an agency , MA is one of the toughest states for adoption.
A few years ago my cousin did a domestic adoption and believe me if there was a way to get around the laws of MA, her laywer would have found it.

Do you know of anyone from MA that has used this method? I have been around for quite some time and as far as I know there are just no ways to get around MA laws.

How then would the adoption be recognized in MA? Even as a non resident of the state you are adopting from, you are still a MA resident. KWIM? How would that work?

EZ

[aclee]

Originally Posted by Sohmakun

Here's how the whole process works:

A non-resident adoption works kind of like an interstate adoption. You select an out of state attorney to help match you with a birth mother. That attorney, however, continues to do almost everything in the adoption, rather than transferring everything to your home state. After creating the adoptive match, he or she can offer counseling to the birth mother, make sure the child is placed with you from the hospital. arrange for the birth mother to sign her consent to adoption and arrange for your adoption to be finalized in its local court. An agency in your home state will only be needed to do any required home study work as determined by the laws of the state of where the child is born and the attorney is located. Unlike interstate adoption, where the laws of two states could conflict, in nonresident adoption, generally only the laws of the birth state will apply because everything is done there. But before you start your home study, make sure that your home study agency is aware of this before you start and then everything should be OK.

I hope that explains everything, when I first heard of it I was also confused but thankfully an experienced adoption attorney told me how it works!

Interesting...we were sort of supposed to do that. Except we happened to match with an out of state agency and then we were going to only use an Attny in MO, and travel back to finalize. Then we realized traveling back to MO, and paying the same attny to finalize would be more expensive than finalizing in our own state. For home study and post placement visits and finalization we've paid $4500 to the agency in our state, so that would have been static, even in we used an out of state attny to match with. They were not the most expensive agency in our state either...not by a long shot. Our "match" cost us 9K, so similar to what you were saying for attny fees had we matched with an attny. That 9K included some post partum support for M though...we don't have any exact numbers, but we think about 3K from certain things we've been told. Additional to those, we had about 5K spent in MO on the agency and attny there. The majority of that was for the counseling for lifetime for the bfamily, which was our choice. We could have "saved" almost the entire 5K in MO if we had wanted to but we were sort of in for a penny, in for a pound at that point. We could have saved a lot of $ on our travel too, but I don't travel well, so we got a 2 bedroom suite and an upgraded rental car. That stuff adds up....to about 3K! If we had done Ty's adoption on a strict budget, we could have done it for a lot less. We could have flown out after TPR, and only stayed for 2 days instead of 10...but what fun is THAT?

I wasn't in $ mode...I was in BABY mode. I'm sure many of the Mom's on here can recall how dangerous THAT mode can be...lol! I highly recommend not shopping while you wait for ICPC. That would have saved us thousands! Had to buy the largest sized duffle bag at Target just to get everything back with us! It was huge...I could fit inside it. There is a picture of that somewhere

[BrandyHagz]

Please remember to ALWAYS check with a certified adoption attorney before using legal advice gained from the forums as 'law' - often, people forget that adoption law varies by state, thus resulting in different laws and guidelines in each state.

[aclee]

Originally Posted by EZ2Luv

Sohmakun,

I know you have tried to explain, but I am still very confused. I am not at all doubting this can be done, I am just not certain with the was the MA laws are that it would be possible.
In MA you must have an agency , MA is one of the toughest states for adoption.
A few years ago my cousin did a domestic adoption and believe me if there was a way to get around the laws of MA, her laywer would have found it.

Do you know of anyone from MA that has used this method? I have been around for quite some time and as far as I know there are just no ways to get around MA laws.

How then would the adoption be recognized in MA? Even as a non resident of the state you are adopting from, you are still a MA resident. KWIM? How would that work?

EZ

I understood it as basically using an agency in MA to do your home study, and then you match with an out of state attny and finalize out of state as well.

I know my agency said I could match with a facilitator or attny somehow, but I only every half listened to them. The outline they gave wouldn't have saved us much money and there was always the "and you might have additional costs for counseling for emom" on top of all the fees they listed. We really preferred to match with a bmom that had agency support. My MA agency really wanted us to match through them...would have made them more money, so that was understandable. In the long run, they didn't hustle for us, so I hustled for us, and I found our baby

MA is a VERY tough state for adoptions...you can finalize out of state though, and then I think it's easier somehow. We had all our ducks in a row though, so finalizing here shouldn't be any problem. I like tough laws...I think they are great! They might cost us more, but they are there for a reason

(NY is harder than MA though...no one wants to work with NY parents!)

[kellyjames]

Ours was just under $12K; we used an agency but found our son's birth mom through our attorney.

This time around (trying for #2), we've spent about $5,000 (updating our home study, ads, and some expenses for a match that didn't work out).

[loveajax]

27K three and a half years ago thru an agency. It's now apparently $29K. Oh, and this does not include homestudy. The only good thing was that the only money due was post placement. (not sure if that is still how it works with this agency).

i have no home equity left! so I don't think I could ever do it again...which STINKS!