How do people afford it?

The costs associated with my first adoption (from foster care) were minimal compared to the next two. For #2, our first Guatemalan adoption, I used inheritance. For this one, I am using tax credit, fundraising via selling Home Interiors and a garage sale and selling stuff on ebay, and taking on a second job. It's tight, we are in debt, but it will all work out. PS: Home Interiors has fundraising program that gives you 50% of what you sell. Check it out online.

For the first adoption, we received two gifts from family that totaled about a third of the cost of the adoption. We took out a home equity loan for the second third. And the last third we paid for with low interest credit cards (that we then turned around and scrimped and saved to pay off). As for the scrimping, we cut out dinners out, any clothing purchases, had a very low mortgage, went without Internet access and cable t.v. at home for about a year (we both were able to check e-mail, etc. at work), put all birthday/christmas money towards the credit cards, sold anything we weren't using at flea markets and just generally lived very frugally. At the time, my husband was in graduate school - so we were already on a shoestring as it was! When we sold our house a year after Gabriel came home, his adoption was 100% paid off with the proceeds. Now that we're planning on starting #2 next summer, I've had to get really creative. We recently moved to a larger house and as a consequence, have an extra room we're going to temporarily rent out to a college friend of my husband's. We've made a rule that any random money that comes in (reimbursements, odd checks you're not expecting, etc.) go straight into savings. We can't do a home equity loan this time around, so are trying to save the old fashioned way. It's frustrating, especially because in an ideal world we'd already be in process with #2, but I keep reminding myself that the baby we wind up bringing home will be the perfect baby for us at the perfect time. I should also mention that we're about 90 percent sure we're going with the Ethiopia program next time. If we're not starting until next summer, we have no idea what the Guatemala program will look like then - also the lower price tag means we can afford to start the process a little sooner. P.S. I forgot to add that we also downsized to one car and now my husband walks to work. I know it's not possible for everyone, but biking might be?!? It's been a significant savings when you consider car payments, gas and car insurance:-)

[url=http://aspecialfamily.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-to-afford-multiple-adoptions.html]A Special Family: How to Afford Multiple Adoptions[/url]

Wow I am so lucky. DD is in the 2nd most expensive daycare in town (run by the hospital even) and it is only $118 a week. Most daycares in town average $80 to $85. Maybe some are lucky enough to live in an area like me where daycare costs are low, so they are able to afford having multiple kids in daycare.

Yes, our daycare is only 100 a week for 5 days a week, and DD only goes 3-4 days depending on DH's work schedule. So we will have no problem affording the additional cost of daycare, etc. when our second child comes home -- it's just a MAJOR problem coming up with the funds to actually adopt again!

Wow, you guys are lucky. Where I am daycare runs from $300 to $400 a week!!! That on a single salary plus mortgage and bills = crazy!

We have done only one adoption but we afforded it because even though at the time both DH and I were working...we live on only one income. All of our expenditures are based on DH's salary only. Why? Well, a few years back we learned a very important lesson. We both worked, had a large beautiful NEW home that we built, new cars, etc. We ate out a lot, took cruises, went to Disney routinely, etc. I then injured my back at work. Even with workmans comp we could NOT make our bills! We ended up selling our home and were lucky enough to then make enough on that sale to pay off all our debts. I was devastated and felt like a failure. Well, fast forward a few years...and I realize my back injury was a blessing. We now live in an older home. We drive paid for cars. We hardly ever eat out. We don't use credit cards unless we can pay it off entirely at the end of the month. We pay cash and live within the means of one salary. Our vacations now are local for the most part...weekends at the beach. We are saving for Disney. The rewards to this have been unbelievable. I eventually got back to work as a nurse educator. My salary paid our adoption costs. I then was offered a free ride to go to school for my FNP and PhD...and because we can get by with out me working for a few years...I could actually accept this once in a lifetime opportunity. Yes, things are tight here. We don't get all the extras but our kids have all that they need...a place to live, food on the table, and parents who love them. And in 3 years, our income will more than double. Scaling back really hard will give you the opportunity to do what you want. The biggest "money saver" was downsizing our home. (Of course with real estate where is is right now...that might not be a viable option today). Our mortgage is less and so are our taxes and utilities.

This is agreat posting, Hope... My husband and I both work as professionals and our major assets were fairly liquid - i.e, stock accounts, savings, etc. We also receive decent bonuses at the end of the year... so that pretty much paid for Cole's. So we have a decent income and liquidity. The second one, which we are starting now, we'd like to take a loan, but we're liquid enough to pay for it out of pocket. That will mean we will totally eat through our savings and have nothing to lean back on... I was looking into Grants and Loans for the past months and the responses were'nt good for us, basically if you're taking a loan or applying for a grant, you have to prove that you REALLY can't pay for it.... and we REALLY could, but it would hurt. On the other hand, we live well within our means, we dont drive fancy cars, we don't live in the "upscale" neighborhood and Walmart, Ross and TJmax are my best friends... for just about everything. And that is how the kids will live too. And if we were to adopt a third child, it would have to come from tax credit -- because we need to build up our savings again for a security blanket for our family. Plus one day, one of us would like to be able to stay home with the kids for more than 6 mos....

And on this same note, talking to a financial advisor makes sense also. FA's are not only for the wealthy, they can help those who have smaller incomes as well... you can sit down with someone for free to talk about your long and short term goals. For example, taking 100$ out of each paycheck to invest in mutual funds, equity options, etc... can double or triple what you might simply have in savings... and these folks are trained to "watch" your money... so you don't have to worry about your trading account and watching the markets. And they will take a slight percentage for taking care of your cash for you. Neither of us are financial advisors... :) But they are great to have and can partner with you and your family to help meet goals.. by putting your money in places that you've never thought about....

I just married a rich woman. :D We dipped into savings and God did a ton of miracles to get us where we are. I could go through all the amazing things that's happened to us during this adoption that can only be explained by saying, God is in control...but you guys will just have to buy the book. :)

We are one of those families that completed three adoptions in a short period of time. We feel that God's plan was in the works long before we even knew we would adopt. DH and I were married young and bought a home from my father's friend for a fantastic price, so from the start we had a ton of equity. Adoption #1- Home equity line of credit Adoption # 2- Tax credit from #1, bought used car, stopped eating out, cancelled newspaper, lived a no frills life to save, save, and save some more. Adoption #3- pushed our financial situation to the limit but did not break us completely, we again borrowed from the equity in our home, used credit cards and some of the tax credit to travel. We have lived pretty tight this past year as we continue to dig out from #3. I am a master at saving money and finding the best deals around. There are times I wish I could have extra things or go on vacation but when I look at my three beautiful children I know it is all worth it. In a few short years we will be able to enjoy those things again or maybe we will add another beautiful child to our family. Anne

Something some one else mentioned too is to "shop" around for which country you adopt from. I realize often you might not qualify for a particular country but there is a big difference in cost. Guatemala seems to be one of the more expensive places to adopt from. Some countries have no or a minimal extra fee for a second or third child. A country like that might be a good option for people looking to have a larger family or getting the two-three children they hope to adopt but just all at once. Anna

We adopted six babies within three years, five of which were born in Guatemala. The last four Guatemalan adoptions each cost us between 1k-8k total. The reason being, we were willing to adopt special needs babies. In the end of the four special needs, one ended up misdiagnosed and was perfectly healthy, two had needs that were immediately corrected surgically, and one has a severe medical condition. Our one domestic adoption came as a result of the birthmother hearing about our large adoptive family. We paid 3k total for this private domestic adoption of a healthy newborn. The birthmother wouldn't consider any other family, but ours because of all our other babies. We feel blessed beyond measure, and know that it is only by the grace of God that we have six beautiful children. It was a walk of faith moving forward with so many adoptions overlapping eachother, but we now have a happy home filled with little ones, and no adoption debt!

I am open to special needs children. I did enquire with the agency I am thinking of going with and they do no reduction for special needs. I also wrote to hogars, didn't hear anything from most of them... Can anyone tell me of agencies or hogars that do this?

We are on #4 adoption in 4 years and We Are Always Game for More......

Honestly....We don't go to Europe, our older kids go to State Universities, We live in a 1960's house (which we are remodeling, still) I work Part Time, for Realy GREAT Benifits and we invest VERY Wisely... Our Largest & Best investment.... Lots of Children to take Care of Us When We Get Old!!! :clown: Ann