cha-ching.

It's expensive to adopt. I'm sure you know that though.

 ...but I've been surprised by how inexpensive it is compared to my expectations. Since some of you have mentioned interest in adoption and have even asked about the financial side of the process, I hope this serves to encourage you if you'd like to add to your family through adoption.

Our agency (please email me and ask if you want contact info) is almost half as expensive as other international agencies. Why? They want to keep costs lower so more families can afford to adopt - or adopt more children.

For many who might consider adoption, the financial aspect seems to be a huge deterrent.  It's expensive.  Period.  You may have heard nightmare stories of families getting into huge financial trouble due to an adoption.  I know I have.  But I also know I serve a God who has called us to care for the orphan (James 1:27) and He is ultimately our Provider.  So far we have had to make "sacrifices" (I use that word very lightly) to make this happen, but we know it will be worth it when we bring our child home.

An amazing and surprising part of this whole journey has been the people the Lord has moved to help us.  Without getting into too many specifics, all the help many of you have provided has truly meant a lot.

Now, without further ado, the financial break-down.

  250   Application fee to agency
1800   Processing fee to agency
    10   DVD of waiting children
1850   Homestudy (however, an average cost for homestudy is 2000)
    20   State Police to have fingerprints done to send to (next item)
  100   State Treasurer to process fingerprints for criminal background check
    15   Child Protective Services to verify we've never had history with them
    30   State Police to get  notarized copies of our background checks
------
4075   Costs already paid

  670   Visa petition for child
  160   Fingerprinting for an FBI background check
3200   Placement of child fee
  400   Visa issuance for child
4000   Travel Costs for required two week stay in country to file paperwork to bring the child home (this is the agency's average but it fluctuates based on time of year for buying plane tickets and hotel)
  900   Post placement social worker reports (three of them) sent to the country
  ???    Trip to the country's nearest embassy in the U.S. one year after bringing the child home to be interviewed and finalize the adoption (we will not have officially adopted our child until this point!)
-------
9330 Estimate of expected costs


13,405 TOTAL Estimated Costs 

All these costs are based specifically on the country we're adopting from and the agencies we are using to process our adoption and complete our homestudy.  They could vary greatly depending on either of those factors.  From personal research I have seen many domestic adoptions costing more than our expected total, so it's not always more expensive to adopt internationally as I assumed.

Something to keep in mind is the U.S. govt gives about a $12,000 tax credit for each child adopted. The kicker is, you can use this amount over four years! Let me give an example to clarify. Say you adopt a child and owe $2000 in taxes for the year. You would owe no taxes due to the credit, then also have $10,000 credit to be used toward the following three years. Depending on your tax situation, that could be a really great deal!  Then again, if you purchase a home and have other deductions for the year, you may not benefit from this credit.

I'm surprised if I have many readers still with me at this point.  This is not exactly the most exciting reading, but I hope it's been insightful for those of you genuinely interested in adoption.  Please send any further questions my way if I still left you with some.  I am happy to help or point you in the right direction.

Blessings, angela