Adoption is wonderful journey of family building for both adoptive parents and child (ren).

Both domestic and International adoption can be expensive, especially with the cost of travel for International adoption, and both are relatively close in cost–unless you use the state foster care system. These are worthy children in need of a home but tend to be much older than infant age. However, there are grants and loans available for such endeavors.

Many people will buy a new car, etc, on a loan without even thinking twice but will balk at the idea of using a loan for adoption expenses.

Look into a “special needs” child (waiting child) who may have a grant or scholarship attached to the them. A special needs child could be anything from a lazy eye, to Hep A positive, or cleft lip/palate which is correctable. One family I know adopted a little girl who was simply near sighted and needed glasses, yet she was not perfectly healthy so she was considered special needs. Others can be older than the age of 3 and therefore considered special needs.

Just about every international adoption agency has a waiting child list.

Lastly in regards to cost, do a lot of the paperwork & leg work yourself to save on fees. If you do your own compilation of your dossier rather than having the agency do it for you, then it could save hundreds of dollars. Some things you won’t be able to lower the costs like the INS fees, they are the same for everyone regardless of adoptive country.

Use a social worker agency  to do your Home Study; they are usually far less than other homestudy agencies. (homestudies are only good for 18 months, so keep this in mind when beginning the process–the state foster care system usually won’t provide information on a child unless you have a home study already complete.)

You don’t pay for adoption expenses all at once, it is done in increments as the process moves along. A big up front expense is the Home study, therefore ask an agency will take the fee for the homestudy in a few payments rather than the $1200 (or higher) all up
front. Sometimes a private social worker will be less cost than one with a large company.

If you are a single person you will have a bit more difficult time if you adopt internationally. China now allows very few single parents to adopt. India
has a good adoption program and single women are welcomed.  Though you must be at least 30 and no older than 45 years (same with China). Children are aged 12 months and older.

Keep in mind that an International adoption will take about a year to complete, sometimes longer. You will want to look a a program with little variations in the process, China is one country that is very solid in the process rarely changes, until recently the requirements were the same for over 15 yrs.

Best of wishes on your journey!

For more information, visit www.baby-adoption.co.uk

adoption

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2007 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Baby Adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.