I Need Ideas!

Please consider the fact that you can borrow through the bank (home equity loan), or through re-financing of your home (which is what we did and saved money in the end with our house payment....much lower interest rate.) There are also some grants available advertised on the net (though I've not contacted them.) Also consider that some agencies/attorneys will take payments (which is what ours did). The finalization had to be in six months (which gave us six months)....but had we taken longer, the finalization would just have been delayed. Still, we would have been enjoying our baby. I also have a friend who even borrowed several thousand on her credit card. A little unconventional perhaps, but they did it! Hope this helps. Sincerely, Linny

There are ways through 1-800 Partyshop to raise funds. If you are interested please contact me at malayklan@earthlink.net I would be happy to share that and another possibility with you.

Here's a few ideas on raising the money 1. Borrow against your pension or 401K 2. Borrow against your cash value of your life insurance 3. Grants - they are out there. Ranging from $500 to $2000 to help with adoptions costs. You can check the National Adoption Clearing house. Do a web search on this. Their site and book "Making Adoption Affordable" offer some ideas. 4. Check with your adoption agency. Some agencies provide grants or they will know of agencies who have provided grants to them on their clients behalf. 5. Winter Fundraising at Church or other organizations you belong to. 6. See if the $5,000 can be paid in installments. You may have heard of some of these. Wishing you and your family the best wishes. Good luck! Hopefully, your child will be home in time for Christimas.

Hi there, 1. Check with your state and see if they offer any type of assistance for certain adoptions. I know that some states only offer financial assistance if the adoption is of a special needs child, but it's worth checking into. 2. Go through your assets such as retirement accounts at work, any stock shares you have in a reinvestment plan, etc. You can cash the stock accounts or borrow on the retirement fund. Other assets such as things at your home you could possibly sell that you aren't using. DH sold off lots of old stereo equipment, huge speakers, etc. that were just taking up space in the garage but amounted to more than $1,000. 3. Ask your family for a loan. Pay it back with the money you will save on your taxes from the tax credit. 4. Talk to your banker about an adoption loan. We got one very easily. 5. Yep. Credit cards are great for adoption expenses. We had some fees to pay and we called one of our credit card companies and had them deposit cash in our bank account. Our finance rate with them is 2 percent...so that's a great deal. 6. Look for ways to save money every day so that you can save up and pay with as much cash as possible. DH and I got used to living on a shoe string and even now we are putting $400 a month into savings that goes toward adoption expenses. Start small and keep increasing the amount. 7. Our agency lets us pay as we go. They break down the costs for every step of the way and that takes the big bite out of writing a huge check and having to have all the cash at once. This has helped us manage the costs better. 8. Make sure you save each and every receipt for anything adoption related. Talk to your tax adviser to find out what you can apply toward the adoption credit when you do get a child so that you don't lose out on the credit. 9. Check with your employers. Some large companies have adoption benefits that equal what other couples get in maternity benefits. 10. If you have student loans, call the companies and see if you can defer payments for several months and put that money toward your adoption expenses. That's all I can think of for now. Good luck to you. I know how hard it is to gather the funds. Camera

Here is what we've done... We are adopting thru a facilitator and have had to come up with facilitator fees, attorney fees and birthmother fees which were a bit more than we'd expected... *Borrowed from 401(k) -- we have borrowed some from both mine and my husband's. *My best friend had an Avon fundraiser for us -- any orders that we generated, we got a percentage of the proceeds. It was quite successful and in our case was enough to pay for the crib, the playard, the stroller, the car seat and an extra base for the car seat -- about $500. I now have a friend that is doing Tupperware fundraisers -- if interested, email me -- stevekarenadoption@hotmail.com. The Tupperware structure for fundraisers is awesome and a great way to make extra money to help with the adoption expenses ;) *We sold some stock -- it was nothing that was going to make us a ton of money, and came in handy... A few hundred dollars... *We had a garage sale -- this brought in about $300. *We took a small loan from my husband's father. We didn't want to do it -- but we had gone through most of the emergency stash we had put aside for when I was off work with the baby. The small loan will help me to stay home for 8 weeks vs. going right back to work. We just took the loan out, and our baby is due any day now -- the rest of the expenses we've handled ourselves. *We have put a small amount on our credit card -- about $800. I didn't want anything more than that as I want to pay it off as soon as I'm back to work. Our birthmother is living in a hotel and it has helped for us to put her charges on our card, weekly, and then we pay it off weekly when my husband has been paid. We have been doing this for about 3 months and while it has added up to quite a bit financially, breaking it down weekly hasn't been that hard to do. *We bought a new freezer on sale. We have been slowly filling it up with food for when I am off work, reducing our financial outlay when I'm off and not bringing in a paycheck. I've also gotten quite savvy with sales ads and coupons, saving about $700 in the past three months. Paid for the freezer plus a bunch... *Our attorney had two payment plans available. We chose the one that allowed us to put down a sizeable down payment, and then we make payments after the baby comes... Hope this helps... ~Karen