adoption – the financial side

Today I wanted to touch on the financial side of adoption a bit. Since people have found out about our adoption many people have told me that they would be interested in adoption but the costs are overwhelming. I totally get that. There are some days where I become weighed down by the expenses.

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First I just want to clarify that I am just going to be talking about international adoption expenses, I don’t really know much about the costs for domestic adoption other than, from my understanding, it is a lot cheaper. To give you an idea on the costs for international adoption, when we were researching adoption agencies and different countries to adopt from we found that most international adoptions range from $30,000 to $50,000 US.

That money goes to a variety of different things:
adoption agency fees – because you’ve got amazing people at the adoption agency working for you
orphan care fees – you usually pay a certain amount per month that the child has been in care
home study fees – they need to check you out and make sure you aren’t a psycho! That and that you would actually be a good parent. 🙂 Here they also take a look at your financial situation and check to see if you can financially care for a child
legal fees – since you want it to all be legal
foreign services fees – can’t say I know exactly what this one is all about
document translation fees – often the countries have a different official language, the DRC’s is French
immigration fees – so your child can become a citizen of your country
travel and accommodation – some countries require adoptive parents to travel multiple times, or stay for an extended period of time, otherwise most stay about 2 weeks

In addition to what I listed above there are some other (smaller) expenses (and now you are thinking, seriously?! You need more money in addition to the $30-$50K?? Um, yup). We needed to get criminal record checks (free through the RCMP though!), child abuse checks, fingerprinted for Interpol checks, TB tests, medical letters, all our papers notarized, plus sending a fair amount of paperwork sent express post. Though smaller expenses they seem to add up quickly.

For those wondering about adopting multiple children at a time, it is definitely cheaper than if you were to adopt them at separate times since many of the fees you would only have to pay once (agency, home study, travel, etc).

Now, if I haven’t completely scared you away from adoption, in the coming week or so I would like to share how we are raising money for our adoption and some creative ways others are doing so as well.

Have a great Victoria Day long weekend!

with love,
Chantel