[bratgirl]

We are in the process of adopting two children from Russia on an average income for our area. Our costs including everything from initial application to walking in the front door with the kids will be substantially more than the above quoted China adoptions. The largest bulk of our money is coming from an equity line (3/4) and savings (1/4). We have toyed with the idea of doing a fundraiser, but we just don't have the time or really the inclination. We have joked about getting a bunch of friends to stand on the corners and do a "tin cup" fundraising campaign. I swear there are different organizations at every corner every week around us.

The best fundraiser I have heard of was a couple that had a local celebrity that they grew up with appear at a charity dinner and sing. They raised all the money for two separate adoptions from Russia! I WISH we knew someone like that - we would put on a charity dinner in a heartbeat!!!!!

[mel452]

What an awsome idea of a charity fundraiser with a celebrity. There are many celebrities adopting and it would be real cool if someone could get a celebrity to "back them" like Pam Anderson is doing for that olympic gymnast. It would be great if someone like Angelina Jolie who has adopted and is going to adopt again would do some type of charity event and the proceeds would go to a non-profit agency that would donate funds to couples who qualify. People would apply for assistance from an agency that gets it's funding from donations from celebrities, groups like the Rotary or Masons, telethons like the muscular distrophy one, etc. There might be organizations like that out there but I have not researched them as we don't need assistance but it would be awsome if something like this could be done for all the good people who have a good heart, home, but not the liquid funds for the outrageous costs to adopt. how cool....

[mattmiamom]

When we decided to adopt from Korea 8 years ago we also made the decision that I would become a stay-home-mom. To save the money we banked my paycheck and cut out all unnessary expenses for a year and managed to save the $18,000 we needed and became used to only living on one salary. When our son was 2 years old we sold our large home and purchased a slightly smaller one closer to DH's office. After 3 years we started the processes again by saving our tax refund and cutting back where we could (no vacations, no dinners out, etc).

Now I am still a stay-home-mom with two beautiful children (from Korea). We are very glad we were patient and saved the money over time instead of taking a loan (which we would be still paying for).

If China is to expense you may want to check out Korea (no travel or dossier is necessary).

Good luck on your journey.

Susan

[Norsk]

I'm thinkikg the exact same thing as you. It is really expensive! And how can we afford it? I don't expect any help from relatives since it is possible for us to have biological kids, and allready have two of them.
I'm thinking the same as the others here: Refinancing our home will help, saving tax-refunds and cutting back on presents to ourselves etc. (Maybe we'll make christmas presents this year, instead of buying them? -Every little bit helps..)

I'm just glad We've got three years to save...

[DBM68]

I work for Bank of America and they give associates five thousand dollars following a legal adoption, my dh's cheapo company even gives you one thousand -

Check this benefit out! It might be worth changing jobs for too!

GL to you!!

[wrekdiver]

Everybody has done a wonderful job already of listing all the good ways to save money. My DH and I are getting on in our years(32/33) and don't really have 2-3 more years to save if we are going to have a child and retire before we die.
I am going to pay out of pocket as much as I can and then borrow first against my retirement plan. The interest is 9% but when I pay it back - all the money + the interest are returned to my fund so I am paying myself 9% instead of someone else. This won't cover the whole thing but it sure will help.
I had a hard time telling our families about the adoption. Since I've taken that bold stepping stone, I am now going to take another--when family ask us what we want at gift giving time I will tell them that anything, even 10 or 25$, towards our adoption is the best gift they could give us. Now that I have read the other posts I may start to ask for frequent flier miles too. Some non-monetary things could include any size children's clothes. This will offset the price of my required orphan donations which could potentially save me 200.00

[kscholtz]

Great suggestions!

I would just like to add that I read in the paper that many airlines offer reduced adoption fares. Make sure you check this out.