| Private adoption with your own networking
will save you money and cost you time and advertising money. If you find
your own birth mother with child, your costs will probably be $4000-10,000
for legal fees and travel and expenses. There are a number of online registries
to help you network like Preciouskids.org
The state foster care system has many older
and special needs children available with no fees at all. In fact many of
these kids may come with a medical card and a monthly subsidy.
International adoption varies greatly for each
country. Some countries will allow you to adopt infants under 1 year. Some
have older children in orphanages and others are in private foster homes.
International fees and travel can vary from $15,000-$40,000. Some countries
will escort the child here to you.
Once you have decided what kind of child you
want, you can start to research your options. A homestudy is required for
all adoption. It can be done by an agency, an independent social worker,
or the state if you are going through the foster system. The state foster
system home studies are usually free but are also not usually usable for
private adoptions. A regular homestudy will run $1000-2500.
No matter which option you choose (except
International) it is helpful to network and tell everyone you know that you
want to adopt. Many successful adoptions come though word of mouth, a friend
of a friend. Some adoptive families build web pages. I can help you with
that. Kay@preciouskids.org Some
families have business cards and color photo profiles to hand out to prospective
people. Use your imagination!
When we decided to adopt I told everyone I knew.
I had photo profiles made to send out. I built a web page with our photos
and a dear birth mom letter. We were listed on the registry at
http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/registry.html
That is where our daughter's birth mom found us. We talked online for
a month or so until she chose us. Then we had an agency in her state handle
her counseling and legal work. Her doctor sent her medical records to our
pediatrician. We talked on the phone lots over the next 8 weeks. I prepared
to breastfeed our baby. (See my article on adoptive breastfeeding) I had
our lawyer handle the legal work for finalization.
We started looking in July 1999. She found us
in November 1999 and chose us in December. Haley was born in March 2000.
Our total costs including travel and our homestudy was $4000. We were able
to receive all $4000 back in the form of a tax credit.
I have a number of great resources for adoption
options listed at
http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/resources.html
I have some adoption scam red flag warnings
listed at
http://www.preciouskids.org/adopt/scam.html
~~~~~~~~
Pregnancy Success:
Overcoming infertility, miscarriage and enjoying successful pregnancies.
~~~~~~~~
So you're Ready to Adopt? CONGRATULATIONS! We've
got something that will help...YOU NEED THIS! We made this just for you!
Prospective adoptive parents need as much information as possible.
A life and a family is much too precious to
allow confusion and misinformation to cause difficulties. This
is why we put ADOPTION
COMPANION™ together...Created by parents who have been through the
journey, along with the colaboration of adoption professionals and
others...more>
~~~~~~~~
Written by Kay Green, author, Christian homeschool
WAHM mom to 4 kids ages 1-18 yrs. Currently running
http://www.MyPreciousKid.com and
http://www.PreciousKids.com
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