new to this got some ?'s

Heather, The cost all depends on what you do. If you go through your state, it could cost you nothing. If you do this, I would recomend becoming ready to be foster parents for a while. If you found a birthmother on your own, the cost would depend on you and the birthmother. Our birthmother is requsting about $4000 for the time she will not be able to work (we are in Japan, very expensive to live here) and she has requested that we pay the birth fee and doctors fee which will run us about $4000-$5000. Through an agency, the cost can go up to $30,000 with a home study and post-placement. As far as a home-study goes. You will have to look around for a social worker. We are overseas and just paid $600 for the home-study and post-placement will run us about $1000. Our social worker was on the less expensive end. I heard of another social worker at another base that charges $800 for the home-study. I hope this helps you. Let me know if I can help you with anything else. Congrats on your son and on your decision to adopt. Lyndsi

Hello there USN this a spouse from the USAF. My husband and I have just been placed with a 2 yr old girl who we adopted from foster care. We went through the state for our adoption. Since we went through what you call an Interstate Adoption through DHS we paid $0 in adoption costs. Many states require you be atleast 21 years of age. Also the cost depends on whether you choose a state or private agency. Check into your legal office because military members there is a reimbursement for expenses up to $2000 for expenses after you finalize your adoption. The homestudy cost once again depends on the agency. I suggest going through the national adoption information clearinghouse to find a non-profit agency in your stateto do your homestudy. We did that and paid $0. As for the wait it just depends on what you are looking for and no matter how short or long it may be it can never be fast enough for anyone. I hope this helps you. LOL, Cicely

so what your saying since we ar in ct that if we adopt from ct we can adopt for $0. thats kewl. how is that? who pays for it? We are both 21 and want to adopt a little girl.. about 2-6 or so. I just figured to find out as much as I can here before I call the agency.. Thank you

Hello again Heather. What my husband and I did first was to decide the age we wanted to adopt, which happened to be from ages 2 - 7 years old. We decided to go through the foster care system (DHS) since they tend to have older children waiting. It wasn't until we were matched with our little girl from Missouri, we're stationed in Oklahoma, that we found out public agencies tend to pay for all your costs. Missouri DHS has payed for our legal costs, mileage, and hotels for all the visits we went to out of state. Sonjae's social worker told us people don't realize most DHS adoptions tend to cost next to nothing. You will know more about what the state will pay for when you do an Adoption Subsidy agreement. Just remember alot of this will depend on the child you choose to adopt. In our case Sonjae was special needs. As for how to not pay an arm and a leg for a homestudy, I would suggest talking to an adoption specialist at the nearest DHS in the state of CT. These people will be able to walk your through everything you need to know. You can ask them if they know of an agency who doe homestudies for little to no cost for the adoptive parents. We had a very positive experience from start to finish with our adoption from foster care. We brought our 2 year old Sonjae home for good on Nov 12th, 2004. It was not as quick as we would have liked, but it was not hard either. I hope this points you in some sort of way to go. Best wishes to you Heather. LOL, Cicely

thank you I will have to look into that