[karla-k]

My husband and I have felt led to adopt internationally for several years and are ready to begin the process. We have full faith that God wants us to do this, but honestly the financial side of things scares me. If anyone wouldn't mind sharing, how did you finance your international adoption?

Karla
mom of 3 wonderful children
DD 2/21/99
DS 3/18/04
DS 11/6/06

[Sheba]

We saved and paid for it with cash and a small part from our equity. Some people pull it out of their 401K's, borrow money from parents, save like we did, equity in their houses. We really wanted to adopt and so we stop spending money that was not really needed and we saved almost all of the cash in no time at all. This time we have done the same thing. So far, we have only paid everything out of the savings and are still saving for the final balance when we get our referral.

Good luck.

[karla-k]

I thought about using my retirement savings. I figured with the $10,000 adoption credit that would basically cancel out the taxes I would have to pay for withdrawing the money. Any opinions or other thoughts on this? I am a teacher, but plan to stay home after this year, so my retirement would not be what we plan to live on in 40 years.

[ejimommy]

You can take a loan from your 401k and you end up paying the interest to yourself. I don't think you get penalized for taking a loan against your retirement. Call your financial advisor.