How To Adopt!

You are considering adoption! Maybe you have no children through infertility and are ready to start your family. Or you may have children by birth and know you are not finished. Or you may have an empty nest with your grown children gone and want to give to another child. But where do you start?

Let's begin with what kind of child you want to adopt:

* A healthy Caucasian newborn?
* An infant of any race?
* An international baby or child?
* An older child in the foster care system?
* A special needs child?

Knowing what kind of child you are looking for will tell you where to begin.

Agencies Adoptions can vary from $10,000-$35,000 for a newborn or infant. Caucasian infants will require the longest wait and highest fees. The wait for girls seems to be longer than boys.

Facilitators have fees from $1000-6000 for infants and newborns. They may also have other aged children available. Usually you will have additional legal fees added to this. Facilitators/Referral Services are not legal in all states. Check out your states laws.

Attorneys can work independently to finalize an adoption that you bring to them for $500-3000 or some will advertise and find you a child too with fees up to $20,000.

Private Adoption with your own networking will save you money but cost you time and advertising money. If you find your own birth mother with child, your costs will probably be $4000-10,000 for legal fees, counseling, medical if not covered by her insurance or Medicaid and travel expenses. The cost for private adoption varies greatly for each situation. There are a number of online registries to help you network like ours http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/registry.html

Foster/At Risk Adoption- If your budget is such that you cannot afford to adopt privately or through an agency, the best choice would be a foster/at-risk adoption through your state. Most, if not all, of these children have some type of special needs. (i.e., drug exposure, alcohol exposure, emotional and physical abuse). You must be willing to accept the fact that the child may not ultimately be free for adoption in these instances.

The state pays for the cost of your home study. When a child becomes free for adoption, there are no fees to the adopting family. In fact many of these kids may come with a medical card and a monthly subsidy. It cannot be emphasized enough that this is an at-risk situation. There are many factors that come into play prior to a child being legally free for adoption, and each situation is unique and different.
Acres of Hope at http://www.acresofhope.com charges no fees to help place special needs children. USA State by State list of children available for adoption by USA adoption agency

International Adoption varies greatly for each country. Some countries will allow you to adopt infants under 1 year. Some have older children in orphanages and others are in private foster homes. International fees and travel can vary from $15,000-$40,000. Some countries will escort the child here to you. Check here: http://www.adoptionagencies.org/ and
International Internet Adoption Photo listing
International Information by Country

National Adoption Information http://naic.acf.hhs.gov
Open Adoption http://www.openadoption.org/
Adoption Network http://www.adoption.org/

Once you have decided what kind of child you want, you can start to research your options. A homestudy is required for all adoption. It can be done by an agency, an independent social worker (if your state allows that), or the state if you are going through the foster system. The state foster system home studies are usually free but are also not usually usable for private adoptions. A regular homestudy will run $1000-3000.

For more resources check out http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/
and http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/resources.html

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