New here international adoption

If you feel God is leading you to adopt, then don't let money stand in your way. There a several places that will loan you money. Also, the military will reimburse $2500/ child expenses. There's also the $10,000/child expense credit on you Fed. taxes. Hang in there....we are awaiting our travel date.

Why spend more money??? We've adopted two and are in process for our third child. The first two were infants whose BM's we met simply by networking on my husband's commands. There are lots of babies. Our third, still in the works, is a foster-adopt case that we developed from a web-search for "waiting children" and dialogue with county social service workers stateside. This beautiful cheerful little boy is 15mos old and should be in our home before high-school ;^) (Foster adopt is a little different than our previous private adoptions from military members.) But we're not bitter... it just seems long. In the end, we'll have spent a few thousand dollars out of pocket, but will have recouped every dime from the DOD and IRS reimbursements. We encourage word-of-mouth networking to find adoption plans. A friend of ours posted an ad one day at our local OB/GYN clinic, and the next day she met a teary-eyed young woman reading it. The girl had just returned from her abortion, and would never have gone through with it if she'd seen the advertisement a day sooner. She just didn't know that, being overseas, she had options... Adopting from foreign countries can legitimately cost tens of thousands of dollars. We don't begrudge the agencies needing to cover their costs, but we also aren't independently wealthy and able to cover them as easily as some. There are babies closer to home than Belarus that need forever homes, and they can cost a WHOLE lot less, leaving you with the wherewithall to actually raise a child once you adopt one. Good hunting, Cassie and David

Cassie, you were saying you adopted from other military women. Can you share how you guys did the 'networking'? We are an Air Force family that are hoping to adopt again. Our daughter was a fost/adopt, but a great and rare case (we were there for her delivery and the bmother relinquished rights). So, we are starting to think about a sibling...any info you can provide would be great. Thanks Christine

Sure, It's not glamorous or complicated... We just told ANY body we were talking to "hey by the way, we are looking to adopt, if you know of anybody..." We made business cards on our computer to hand out to friends just in case they hear of a single service member whose pregnant. The cards were a non cofrentational way of approaching the subject. Basically we put our picture on the card then wrote: Wanted a child to share our hearts our lives our home. When it was time for the second adoption we just added wanted a baby brother or sister... The birthmother to our second daughter, recieved five of those cards from various mutal friends!!! I hope this helps! -Cassie

Cassie can you tell me what I need to do to adopt from a women we know of that is pregnant? We have been wanting to adopt for some time now and have just learned of a young women who is looking to have her baby adopted, she is only 12 wks pregnant. I have no idea where to start and what the process is, can you tell me how you went about adopting your two children? Thank you

Congrats on your decision to adopt! I'm sure you and your husband have already thought about your options and you have your reasons for choosing international adoption vs. domestic adoption. We chose to adopt internationally as well. There are many reasons to weigh and it is a huge decision ... but it sounds like you are drawn to parenting a child from Belarus, and while others might not understand, I do. When we decided to pursue an adoption from Haiti countless friends, relatives, strangers, other adoptive parents ect said, "Why Haiti? There are kids here!" Some are just being helpful, while others almost seem offended that we aren't helping American children first. As I see it children all over the world need loving homes, and each of us are guided towards different countries. As far as the debt, $8000 doesn't sound too bad. You can always take out a loan for upfront costs, or a line of credit on your home if you own(which is what we just did)... there are plenty of ways to make your dream happen! Like the others mentioned the $10,000 tax credit helps too! Good Luck with everything... let us know how it goes:)