How much does International Adoption cost?

As I mentioned in a previous adoption update, we've been asked a few times about how much adoption costs and how we're planning to pay for it.

To answer the first part of that question, our agency has created a nice fee schedule for each country they work with.  There are certain fees that are defined, and easy to predict like our home study and what the country requires to complete their processes.  Other fees, however, are variable like airfare, lodging in-country and document requests and authentication.

Here is a list of the more defined fees for the Eastern European country we've chosen. We know for certain we'll need to pay this much to the agency / country:

1. Application Fee
2. Agency fee and home study
3. Agency fee and dossier assistance/review
4. Payment to Country at dossier submission
5. Payment to Country when referral / match accepted
6. Payment on 1st trip to Country
   Total of these fees:  $23,425 for 1 child or $29,025 for 2

As you can see, there is a big financial commitment involved.  Luckily, these fees aren't all due at one time.  We've just completed our home study and we're currently working on our dossier, so we've paid through #3.  The next one will be due in another couple months when our dossier is completed then the last 2 could take some time, depending on how quickly we are matched with a child.  The fact that these fees are spread out over time definitely helps.


Beyond this schedule of defined fees, there are several other items / services that we will need to have the funds for, like:

• Immigration (USCIS)
• Fingerprinting
• Orphan Visas
• Airfare
• Travel Expenses in Country
• Other Expenses (postage, document requests, authentication)
  Total could range between:  $9,000 and $12,000 (estimated)

The next question is, how are we going to pay for it? Some folks have the funds and can pay for everything themselves, some adoptive parents borrow all the money, others apply for grants and do a lot of fundraising.  We've decided the best approach for us is a combination of these:

As long as we both keep working (knock on wood!), we believe we can pay for the set fees ($23-$29K) by combining a low-interest loan with our personal savings.  To help boost our savings we are thinking hard about how much we spend and cutting back wherever we can.  I'll share a lot of those ideas in future posts in hopes of helping others save money, too.

To pay for the more variable fees (airfare, travel, visas, etc.), we set up a separate 'Adoption Fund' account.  So far, we've deposited birthday money, health savings account reimbursements, rebates and other miscellaneous monies from selling something on ebay to loose change - it all adds up!

We're hoping to conduct a few fundraising activities to help boost that account, like:

• A big yard sale this summer (our siblings and parents are already saving their cast-offs for us!)
• Possibly a home party fundraiser like Thirty-One or Pampered Chef
• Maybe selling something food-related like homemade marshmallows or cookies
• Links or ads on this blog, like the Amazon search box on the right-hand side (if you start your Amazon shopping there, Amazon will give us a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn't cost you a dime!)

Hopefully we'll have some success with some of these.  If you have other ideas for fundraising, I'd love to hear them and if you're local to us and have some items you'd like to donate for our yard sale, we'd love to have them!  We'd be happy to pick them up.  :)

If you stuck with me through all that - thank you!  And, if you feel compelled to help us in any way whatsoever, we will be eternally grateful.


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