[Karenanne]

Has anyone who adopted two children at the same time taken out a loan for most of the adoption? Or did you have most of the money upfront?

[dspakowsky]

You'll probably have to pay all the Agency fee before the referrals, and 1/2 of both the Foreign Fees after you accept the referrals. That could be aroud $4000-$6000 (agency) and $20,000-$24,000 (foreign). So it comes fast!

We made sure we had the money ready.

[resabelle]

With the exception of our embassy fees at pickup, we paid all of our money within 60 days of accepting referrals. We paid 1/2 of both attorney and the remainder a month or two after that. That being said, we were fortunate with our time line so our children were home soon after that. The money side does come up very quickly.

[widgit]

We refinanced our home to pay for the foreign program fees.

[saranbr]

We just payed for it as we went but I know a couple people who have done home-equity loans. According to my DH, who does finance for a living, that is a much better option, interest wise, than a personal loan if you have the option.

[DPline]

We used savings and a home equity line of credit. Ours were a little more spaced out though. We lost our first referral after 2 1/2 months, then waited another 2 months before accepting our daughter's referral, then it was almost three months after that we accepted out son's referral. Then the final foreign fees were about three months apart.

[annaguat]

We did not start the adoption untill we had all the funds saved up. Anna

[Mindybeth6]

We took out a home equity loan to cover everything so we have all the money in a savings account that I can transfer to checking as we need to pay for things. It is such a relief to just know the money is there and we don't even have to worry about it.

Mindy

[lwils89701]

and had all the funds ready to easily meet the expenses for one international adoption, with no debt except my mortgage and a car payment. After I hit several delays and things finally started to come together, I decided to try to adopt two children, thinking it may be my only opportunity. I initially absorbed some of the additional expenses from my monthly earnings as the were incurred (i.e., DNA testing, document preparation, FedEx fees, a visit trip, etc.) and was fairly sucessful. In the end, I had to borrow about 50% of the money for the second adoption. I used a home equity line of credit and fixed the interest rate for the lump sum I required.

Unfortunately, I now have a loan payment each month in addition to all the new expenses of my two muchkins like day care, diapers, health insurance premiums, deductibles, co-payments and to my surprise really high utility bills. Aside from increased fuel costs, I am using a lot more therms and jules....warmer nursery, 4X the laundry...who would have thought it would make such a huge difference???....

I don't think I could have managed to finance for both of the adoptions. It is tight, but we are happy.