[Stephilandia]

This may be a naive sounding question, but is it pretty much standard that no matter where you adopt from it is going to cost you several thousand dollars? Is that just the way of things??

Stephanie

[Anita]

You are correct. Adoption is going to cost you. The homestudy alone costs $1700-$3000. Domestic adoptions can be less expensive than international, mostly because of the travelling that has to be done internationally.

[tatianaanikina]

Originally posted by Anita
You are correct. Adoption is going to cost you. The homestudy alone costs $1700-$3000. Domestic adoptions can be less expensive than international, mostly because of the travelling that has to be done internationally.

I found an agency that charge for a home study $950 including travel.
Tatiana

[SomeBunniesMom]

You will find a range on some of the fees for some of the services but this will depend on where you live and what agency you use. There is a general average though, and there are some things that will be set and part of the process no matter where you adopt from internationally. When you look at the bottom line of all the fees added together throughout the process, the number can be scary for a person of modest income such as myself. I let this scare me for a very long time and delayed making a decision about adoption because of the money involved. i thought there was no way me and my husband could afford such an expensive endeavor. Then someone put things in a perspective for me that made much more sense and felt more comfortable and less overwhelming. For one thing, early in the process there will be several smaller fees spread out over several months. We were able to handle these out of our pocket. The largest being the $1200 we paid for the homestudy. Our total adoption costs were similar to the amount one would pay for a mid-range new car. Can you imagine yourself buying a new car? Most people can when they think of it in terms of a down payment and a monthly fee spread over several years. There are many banks and lending institutions that are willing to make low interest loans for adoption purposes and are not as hard to get as you would think. If funds seem like a big obstacle to you, please check into this. We were able to obtain an equity line of credit that was a blessing in helping us pay for the larger fees involved in our adoption. The repayment each month is manageable and we are able to get on with the business of finally being a family. i wish I could take back all the time I spent being afraid of the costs involved.

[Stephen_M]

That's exactly the way we saw the high adoption fees - if we can go buy a new car, then we could handle the adoption fees. And equity loan definitely helped plus if your household income is less than $150K annually, then you will be able to file for a $10K tax credit the year of the adoption. This really helps.

[red7267]

our complete adoption cost 21,350 the homestudy was 750.00 and we are adopting from Belarus

[FamilyBound]

Even for just Russia (where we adopted from), I've heard the costs from people ranging from $17,000 total to $40,000 total. It depends a lot on the agencies you use, the travel deals you get and other issues as well (like agency vs independent).

[armyfam]

We didn't go through an agency. We are adopting from El Salvador. Our lawyer down there is charging us $3000, but we did absolutely all the paperwork. We handed everything in and she is basically just representing us in court. The ONLY reason we did it this way was because we lived in Guatemala ( we worked for the embassy there) and were able to gather all the required document and were able to monitor things a bit. We found a social worker that works with Bethany Christian Services down there and she charged us $500 for the homestudy. South Dakota DCFS ( we're residents there) underwrote and approved our homestudy for free for INS. Other costs involved the documents the dossier requiered: psychological studies for my husband and I, medical exams, etc. The hassle was getting everything together, because we were Americans, living in Guatemala, adopting in El Salvador, everything had to be aproved by both govts. I hear that El Salvador is now allowing the adoption of children through agencies, it wasn't when I did it. I would definitely go through an adoption agency from here, much more reliable, let them do the work, the cost can be extremely expensive but well worth it.

[opinco]

HI,
You can adopt for very low fees by using this independent facilitator. We used him and is was excellent. This is a great way to have a wonderful adoption from Eastern Europe for a very reasonable fee.
www.geocities.com/adoptukr

[storn]

consider this,

HI,
You can adopt for very low fees by using this independent facilitator. We used him and is was excellent. This is a great way to have a wonderful adoption from Eastern Europe for a very reasonable fee.
www.geocities.com/adoptukr


This is the most expensive facilitator. I do not recommend anyone to use him.

Storn

[opinco]

We only spent $12,000 total for all of our adoption costs to complete a successful adoption from Ukraine. I thought that was very inexpensive.
Thanks
opinco

[qs mom]

Just BEWARE!

If a fee schedule looks considerably lower than all the other you've be looking over, they probably aren't including something that you will need and pay for anyway.

Don't forget there are ALOT of expenses that aren't on the fee schedule - INS, certification, Apostille, Fed Ex, postage, dr. visits, passport, etc. All of these 'extras' have totalled in excess fo $2000 to date.

Although, I didn't really notice them at the time because I didn't have to 'dip into' extra money for it, I just paid them along the way from weekly pay.

Good Luck!

[TillyT]

Stephanie -- I hope the potential financial costs of adoption don't stop you from checking out the process! There are huge differences in costs between agencies, in different countries, and even in different programs within each country. Also, don't forget about the adoption tax credit, which can get you back *a lot* of your expenses. Also, some employers offer an adoption benefit, so check that out too.

All that said, I will tell you that our Korea adoption did cost us several thousand dollars. It seemed like a lot going into it, but I have no regrets!!

[crathke]

Stephanie,

I agree with Tilly; don't let the cost of adoption hold you back!

We went into the process planning to adopt a toddler. My DH was rather...uh, surprised..when he heard the cost (okay, he turned a little green)--but then I sat down and figured out how much we paid in daycare expenses alone for our first child over his first three years--and it came out to about the same amount! The difference was that we'd be paying it all at once, instead of over a number of years.

I've heard the cost of adoption compared to buying a new car. Would you Not buy a car because of the cost? Not necessarily, because you can "spread out" the payments. The difference is in finding the "financing" for the adoption--but that can be done as well, through a number of resources!

[e&imama]

i have two sons adopted from korea, they came home at ages 14 months and 12 months and are both healthy.

total costs including travel for both were a little under $7,000 for the first and a little over $14,000 for the second. we applied and were approved for an adoption grant for the first, thats why the cost was quite a bit lower.

we are working on a domestic adoption now and we don't expect to spend over $10,000, and probably closer to $5,000.

adoption doesn't have to be as expensive as it seems to be for many. $20,000+ is a ridiculous amount to pay in my opinion. although i am certain than no one regrets paying that much for their child, it is just not neccessary.