[manatee16]

I am sure everyone will tell me that it will all work out but I just do not see how. $25,000 is alot of money to come up with. I know about the tax credit of $10,000 but still money does not grow on trees. We have a little in savings but not nearly enough. We can definately support a child once we get one, no problem, but it is coming up with the money to afford everything before hand that I see no solution to. I have been praying about this for months but have not come up with a solution yet.
Any suggestions?

[spidermanteache]

I know alot of people take out a home equity line of credit. That is what we did and it was very nice.

Of course something to ponder is the payment once the adoption is completed. This payment combined with child care if that is applicable to your situation is not very fun!!!

We're living it!!

[BeckyH]

We are in the firsy steps also. We have always talked about doing this, but sort of casually because of the dinero required. This summer out of the clear blue the bank called and offered to refinance and consolidate other debts. This saved us a lot of money per month also. Plus my dh gets a yearly bonus that the kids decided to wait for Disney World, again, so we can take our new little one with when we go! We took the new loan and decided to invest in our family. It only added 10 more years, but we'll need the house for longer than that with a new baby. My advice is to pray and believe that there is a time and reason for everything. Also check out the refinance and consolidation.

[Janette Monteil]

Well, Jason has been home for 3 months almost and we are in debt up to our A**!! But somehow it's all working out I guess. I figure it this way, we don't own a house but will get my moms home someday free and clear, so I guess this LAST adoption is our mortgage. We financed it and it's hard but he is worth it. I do work part time, and my goal is to survive until Christmas and figure out what's next after the new year. Yah I kept saying the same thing all through the process "I have no idea how I'm gonna pay for this!!" But somehow I am.

[yellowdog]

We got our final bill yesterday (we just entered pgn)...ouch! My dh and I are sitting down today and going over our finances to plan for me being off, how we are going to pay this big fat bill we just got, etc...should be a fun day!! I would much rather be painting the baby's room and I hate to paint!
Somehow it has worked out for us thus far..don't get me wrong, we too are in debt up to our A** but the timing of some unexpected work bonuses and the adoption tax credit is helping a great deal. I do know there are some banks who work in partnership with some agencies to offer very low interest loans. The home equity loan helped us a bit too.
Good Luck!

S

[Chrysanthemum]

I totally understand! I am single, self employed and did not qualify for even half of the tax credit. My DD has been home almost 3 years and I am still paying on my home equity loan and will be for at least 2-3 more years! But you know what? I would pay for the rest of my life if I had to! As soon as I am done, I will be starting all over again for #2. It is soooo worth it X10!!!

[csw]

Hi
Wachovia bank used to have what they called 'adoption loans."...now they will give a line of credit.(.not a home equity line)..at a very low rate of 4 something%...we had applied..when we were going to adopt 2 more kids at the same time...and asked for $20,000 to be approved and I guess because our credit is so great..they gave us blank checks for up to $100,000!!! We never ended up needing to borrow anything..as we only adopted one more child this past time and had enough saved...but it was nice to know if we needed it that it was there...

I do know of some folks who borrowed against their 401K at work..I did not want to do that because if you need to quit after the baby is home you have to pay it back in a lump sum..

.I know of one family who actually sold their home and rented an apartment so they could afford to adopt..

You could also try to sell some household items at yard sales, on Ebay etc..just any little bit helps...

I know of someone who used credit cards for a large part of it..but unless you can beat the 4..% rate that this bank offers I dont see why you would do that..

I worked alot, I mean alot..(sometimes 90 hours a week) of hours of overtime for the past 3 years...tons of weekends, holiday's, night shifts...to make extra money..so that is how we did it...

The other option would be a country where the fee's are less...that could be China, Ukraine etc...but you also need to factor in the travel costs and lengths of stay and see..

The foster to adopt program in the USA is an option..we tried for 2 years to adopt a boy up to age 7 and had no luck...but it depends on the state you are in etc...also..

It is hard..but where there is a will there is a way!! Good luck to you...

[ddhuab]

Remember, someone doesn't ask you to write a check for $25,000 when you start this process. When you are researching agencies, try to get a breakdown of the time-frame for costs being due. Once we had this information, we did a spreadsheet that was broken down by months and how our savings would be affected at each step. We were committed to adding $500 per month to our savings.

One thing I did was go back over our household account and I tried to come up with a reasonable budget. What I tried to do was use my debit card for everything I could and not do any withdrawals to help me "categorize" this spending.

Anyway, now that I am more concious of my spending, we have been able to spend much less of this money. I have also been taking my lunch to work most days. That helps me save money, but also time and calories! If you are already budgeting this may not have much of an impact, but we were VERY careless with money, and now I am spending about $700 less per month, no kidding (note: I needed to get this under control anyway, because we really could not have afforded to continue living that way if I quit my part-time job).

We are trying to sacrifice now for two reasons 1) to get used to living more frugally so that there is less of a "surprise" impact once we start buying formula and diapers, etc. and 2) we want to have to borrow as little money as possible (maybe even none) to complete the adoption, so that the tax refund can be put into savings towards a down payment on our next (bigger) house.

The goal of borrowing little money also resulted in us putting off our adoption for about a year. That is a hard decision emotionally, but I think it was the best choice for our family. We had a small savings ($4000) and a goal of adding $500 per month, minimum, to this account. We made the "official" decision to adopt between Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year, and my husband worked at the beginning of the new year on paying off our cars so that those "car payments" could go into savings. So now we have also "sacrificed" by committing to keeping those cars for a few years. That's fine with me.

You might also look into borrowing from your 401K. My husband is ultra-conservative with money and absolutely REFUSED to do this (which was the cause of a disagreement between us)... in the end, I feel like the child that is meant to be ours will find its way to us, whenever that may be... I just am so impatient!

Good luck with your decisions. If you don't already live frugally, then you really CAN save a lot of money by being more aware of coupons, sales, etc. And we don't live like misers -- we still go out to dinner occasionally and we go to the movies -- just not EVERY weekend and not always on the same nights -- like maybe a matinee movie and then I make a nice dinner at home. Or maybe we do something really low-cost like play pool during the day (1/2 price) or go hiking at the national park or something. We are also doing more "entertaining" at home -- having people over for dinner and a video and drinks... that is actually pretty fun and saves us all money. And I am finding that people are starting to regard me as a "great cook" -- who would have guessed that?

D.

[brandydawn]

I just had to chime in because I recently sat down to tally what we had spent so far in our process. I am proud to say that so far in our process we not had to put anything on our credit card.

I agree the amount of money initially is quite a shock and my dh and I spent many a moment with glazed eyes trying to figure out how exactly we were going to do this.

Just like ddhuab noted, you don't pay this all at one time so you can budget yourself for the smaller payments as they come. Our agency told us that we move forward as we were able. There were a couple of things we couldn't cover until the next paycheck rolled around. My dossier was ready a week before I sent it because we needed to get paid before we could cover the final agancy fee.

Our plan is to take out a loan for the country fee only, this will limit the amount of debt we will have when it is all said and done.

Just make sure that you figure in the little things- courier services, costs for passports, costs for finger printing, obtaining passports, copies of documents you need etc....

Good luck to you.

Regards
Brandy

[kjejmom]

We also did a loan to start with so we knew the money was there. I would encourage you to look to your employer and have your spouse do the same. My husbands' employer will contribute up to $10,000.00 after the adoption is final. My employer had nothing in place and after A LOT work on my part they now will give some paid time off and a $3,500.00 contribution after the adoption is final.
We had some friends give us a hard time about borrrowing money to "pay for a kid" but of course they just took a $30,000.00 loan for that vechile that they drive and will trade in in 5 years. Your family is worth the investment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good Luck
Brenda

[huganangel]

Financing an adoption truly does depend on your situation. I am single, own my own house, but have no IRA or the like and my employer matches none of my expenses. I took out a home equity line of credit and will be paying it off until about the time my daughter applies for college. Daycare is tough now as, in my area, it is about $1000 per month. Between this, the mortgage, and a teacher's pay, having her at home is almost as difficult financially. However, she is worth every penny and struggle. The way I see it, I can't take any of it with me. She will be well cared for between life insurance and the sale of my house should (God forbid) something happen to me. She will have to work her way through college as I did. Actually, I went to college with many people who had parents who paid for it and they did not take it nearly as seriously as I did, so paying for it herself might be a good thing. I know that there will always be something to keep me in debt. I have very little money to spend but I count myself rich in the way I feel is most important, my daughter. She will grow up knowing that money is not the root of all happiness and she will learn the simple joys of life. Unlike many I grew up with, she will not have to worry about having a lower standard of living when she is an adult than she had when she was a kid. I plan to teach her to count her blessings and to give back by helping the sick, the poor, and the marginalized. I plan to teach her to be proud of her heritage and the strength of her ancestors which allowed them to survive much worse conditions than she will ever experience. She will learn the true value of money, its ability to make the world a better place. Considering all of this, being in debt might not be as bad as some think. Go to the bank, research specialized loans, and, if you truly want to adopt a child, do whatever it takes. It is SOOOOOOO worth it in the end. You'll have something much more precious than money!

[manatee16]

Thank you to all who resonded with positive messages for our $$$$ issues. It is very incouraging to hear all the success stories and it really gives us alot of hope.