economic costs of adoption

[Anonymous]

I don't know if it has changed, but at the time of my last adoption in 2008, the MD tax credit was not only for special needs. But, the qualified expenses were really narrow. The only thing that I had that qualified was my flight and hotel. But, still, it was better than nothing.

[Anonymous]

OP here - yes, I understand that kids cost money to raise! I have that money and childcare, etc. Those who become parents via biology however don't have to pay $20,000+ off the bat *just to get the child,* which is where things get difficult for me.

Someone mention grants for adoption. can you please give me specific places to apply? That would be most helpful! My thanks to everyone for their comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - yes, I understand that kids cost money to raise! I have that money and childcare, etc. Those who become parents via biology however don't have to pay $20,000+ off the bat *just to get the child,* which is where things get difficult for me.

Someone mention grants for adoption. can you please give me specific places to apply? That would be most helpful! My thanks to everyone for their comments.

I'm the grants poster, as well as the Korean costs poster. We didn't apply for any grants so I can't really recommend any place specifically. You may want to check out the Dave Thomas Foundation for more info, as well as the National Adoption Foundation. Also, our adoption agency has a page on financing an adoption, which lists some places that offer grants- http://www.dillonadopt.com/Financing.htm.

As I said in my Korean post, at least for our agency, you paid in stages. The biggest chunk of money came from when we accepted the referral, which was maybe 10 months or so after we started the process. So there could be quite a few months in btwn events that allow you time to save.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Also, not sure if you were thinking domestic or international, but here's a page with info on domestic benefits for people adopting from foster care.

http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy/stateprofiles.html

[Anonymous]

My husband and I also adopted from Korea and my recollection was that it was one of the more expensive countries to adopt from internationally in terms of the country fees (I've heard anecdotally that Russia and Eastern Europe might be more expensive overall because multiple travel is involved, but I'm not sure how accurate that is). I believe the total adoption costs and fees were about $28K, but then it was an additional $5K for travel and other related expenses. Like the PP, our agency also required payments in stages. Our adoption moved really quickly (about 10 months total from first orientation meeting to actually receiving our DC) though, so we only had a couple of months between payments -- I think the first was about $10k and then $18K after the referral with each payment being about three or four months apart. I'm not familiar with adoption grants generally, the only ones I came across were about $5K to families adopting special needs children. Somewhere along the way we got the impression that a domestic adoption actually winds up costing more than an international adoption, but maybe that's a misapprehension based on the (possibly unfounded) notion that there are more legal issues involved in domestic adoptions, so maybe legal fees run higher? We did all the legal stuff for our international adoption ourselves, so we didn't incur any additional legal fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're considering the adoption route, but are somewhat dismayed and discouraged when we see the costs. We don't have $20,000 to do this or anything else, including care of a special needs child. How much, everything included, did it cost for your adoption? Domestic or intl? private attny?

I haven't adopted yet... I hope to sometime in the near future.

It depends on the type of adoption. Domestic adoption from foster care is the cheapest however it is extremely rare to get a baby and many people don't want older children. The next cheapest is usually international adoption and usually older children and children with special needs will have reduced costs to adopt. Private adoptions in the US are very expensive and again, the demand for babies is very high and can be a very long wait.

I plan to adopt from foster care or internationally adopt.

[Anonymous]

Someone is making a lot of money. There is no business like the baby business

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone is making a lot of money. There is no business like the baby business

Yeah, it sickens me. They are selling babies. I understand that there are costs for all the extensive paperwork, etc., but it doesn't make sense that older or special needs children cost less. What are they...on the clearance rack? They are obviously making lots of money on the young, healthy babies. Its really sad.

[Anonymous]

Market determines the price. We are talking about capitalism.
maybe if all of the a-parents to be went on a strike and refuced to hand over any money until this corruption was sorted out?

Unlikely.

[Anonymous]

We had a domestic adoption (MD baby, VA home) in 2008 that included three attorneys -- hers, ours and the baby's. Total cost was around $25K -- $22K of that to attorneys. It may seem like a lot in attorney fees, but it was solidly legal and in the end, that is what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't have money for adoption, one thing you can do is adopt from foster care. Much cheaper. I would call your state/city social services agency and ask for costs to see if that fits into your budget.

I believe you also get paid for foster care. You can kill two birds with one stone.

[Anonymous]

Poster 21:18...Would you be able to share with me the name of the attorney you used for your adoption? Do you recommend him/her?

Would you also mind providing a brief summary of your adoption experience...how did you start the process, how long did it take, any bad/good experiences etc.

Thank you so much! My husband and I are just starting to embark on the domestic adoption journey. We live in VA.

[Anonymous]

We are just starting the adoption process. Two attorneys who come highly recommended are Peter Wiernicki at Joseph, Reiner & Wiernicki in Rockville, MD and

Stanton Phillips
Adoption Legal Services
1921 Gallows Road, Suite 110
Vienna, VA 22182
[phone]
www.stantonphillips.com
email: [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are just starting the adoption process. Two attorneys who come highly recommended are Peter Wiernicki at Joseph, Reiner & Wiernicki in Rockville, MD and

Stanton Phillips
Adoption Legal Services
1921 Gallows Road, Suite 110
Vienna, VA 22182
[phone]
www.stantonphillips.com
email: [e-mail]

We used Stan Phillips for our Korean adoption. We were very pleased with him; he was very efficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please keep in mind that children in general are expensive. If both parents plan to continue to work, childcare can range from 12-30k per year, depending if you go w/ home care, center care or nanny. In addition, you have clothes/food/toys, etc. We have 3 children (not adopted), and we probably spend at least a total of 50k per year on various expenses (2 in childcare and preschool, 1 in private school who will also be going to college next year).

You arenot comparing like with like. lLooking after/ spending money on children over the course if time i.e. as the money is earned is very different from having to have the $25k-$75k sitting in your account to hand over to the adoption agency. Not speaking specifically to your situation, but many parents pay school fees on a monthy basis as their salaries are earned and many are unable to pay the fees upfront. Likewise clothes, food, toy. Should they not have had children because they did not have each year's expenses set aside before the children were born?

For the record, we did not adopt any of our 3 kids and we pay our private school tuition upfront.