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I would like to hear your experiences with funding your adoption. What did you do that actually worked? How quickly were you able to raise the money? How did your friends/family/community help you? I just thought it would be neat to hear how everyone actually accomplished this!
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thanks shoshana for posting that, I was wondering where your daughter went (avatar) and puzzled by the jump to junior member lol.
okay shoshanna, to answer your question: we just started saving everything. we started a kid account with just 10 dollars a week taken from dh's pay, and then upped it with raises, bonuses and any cash anyone gave us. when we stopped making a car payment because dh's car was paid off, into the pot it went. It was rather quickly a large sum of money ($17000 after 2 years), and that allowed us to have the cash to go forward. It may mean waiting a year or two, but it was worth it for us. we didn't want to raid or slow investment in our 401ks, we didn't ask for funds from relatives (we didn't tell anyone about our plans) and neither did we want to take out a home equity loan or any other loan. you never know what disaster may strike (like job loss, etc), and we preferred to have financial backup just in case.
I know some others have asked for family contributions, but we decided we just didn't want to hear everyone's "opinion" of what we were doing, nor did we want to be asked every minute "so how's the adoption going?". There are loans out there as well as grants for those wishing to adopt, plus many employers offer cash grants for adoption (usually at finalization, so it may take a year or so to get the money). Depending on the employer, it can be as much as $10000 i hear. dh's employer gives $2000. And there's that lovely tax credit of over $10000, which we will partially get next year (2 years after dd's adoption). it has problems, such as it phases out at $200000 or so income level, but it's definitely a help.
we liked the savings route, since it left us financially okay, but it also gave us the sense of what it's like to live with kids (those little buggers are quite expensive :D ). Dd's formula alone ranged from 6-9 dollars a day (nutramigen for kids with milk allergy). Add the diapers and etc to that and you're spending about $12 a day at most. At the cheaper end, now that dd's off the hideously expensive formula but eating organic jarred food, I'd say we're about $5 a day. anyway, this gives a lovely perspective on how much they cost, which was an eyeopener for us (dd is our first child).
wish you luck!
lisa
This is the route we went, and there has been no out of pocket cost as of yet. As a matter of fact, the state has paid US. They children will also have medical insurance until they turn 19, and we could possibly qualify for a monthly subsidy until the babies are 18. you heard me...babies. My oldest is 8 1/2 months and I picked him us right from the hospital. The youngest is 6 months and was 8 weeks when he came to love with us. yes, they have their issues...they were both chemically exposed in the womb...but they are happy healthy babies. Also, many lawyers will fle state adoptions for much less than private adoptions and many states have a reimbursement program for court fees. Just a suggestion. We pay child support for my husband's 2 daughters and it seemed that every time he got a raise their mother filed for more $. This is the route we took because we knew that it would best suit us financially. Best of luck!
Bugsandbearmommy, How long did you have to wait to get and infant from the state. My husband and I are also adopting that way to to expenses I already have 3 bio children from a previous marriage. We had our first home study and passed and start our stars classes on monday. Sooo Excited. Rachel
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From the time we told the state that we were open to taking a "legal risk" case...(which is a case where the first goal is to reunite the child with the parents but there are circumstances where that it probably will not happen...for example Bugs mother had already lost a child to the state) it was almost exactly a week! nine months later we had TPR!
we took out an equity line of credit and paid off some bills at the same time. that way i was able to stay home with my son for almost the first year. we are in the process again and we are saving our selves, i am working a coulple of shifts on the weekends(I am a nurse) and my parents are going to help. we will pay back our "loan"s with our adoption tax credit.
michelle
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It took a long time... But basically I started setting aside the money that I will need once she is home. Daycare costs, Diapers, etc. And monthly it SLOWLY grew. It has taken about 5-7 years for me to get to this point. A long time, but I am glad that I will be able to pay all the fees up front -
