The Financial Cost – It’s so worth it!
By Jacquie Garner
One of the biggest fears about adopting for us was the financial cost. We decided we didn’t want to be paralyzed by the fear of the financial side, and that its not about what we can do, but its about what God can do.
The truth is, adoption is expensive. The average domestic infant adoption cost in the United States is somewhere between $25,000-45,000, plus there are other expenses in getting your home ready, etc. The average international adoption cost is usually $40,000 – $60,000. Understandably, this is a staggering amount to most families. So why is it so expensive to adopt? There are many legitimate costs to adoption to ensure that the adoptive family, birth family, and the child are getting quality care throughout the process. Some of the costs are due to agency fees, birth parent care, medical expenses, legal fees, and traveling expenses, to name a few.
International adoption was something I always wanted to do because thats such a huge need. I can’t stand to think of all the orphans around the world needing a home. Foster care doesn’t cost anything financially and thats such a huge need, especially for older children. It breaks my heart that there are so many hurting children in our country and around the world. For us at this time, we have our 2 boys (6yo and 2yo) to consider. We want to keep their birth order, so the child we bring into our home we want to be less than 2 years old. So fostering doesn’t make sense for us right now. Traveling internationally is so much more money and also time away from our little boys, so we decided not to do that for now. There is a huge need for domestic infant adoption as well, especially for infants of drug or alcohol abuse during pregnancy, and many other situations. Bottom line there’s a huge need for adoption. So thats how we came to the decision of domestic adoption. For now thats the direction we care going. Money is really the biggest hurdle. But again, we believe that shouldn’t stop us from trying to help a child. Of coarse if there was a way to be connected to a situation in need of adoption without going through an agency, the cost would basally be the court fees. We are open to that, but that’s not common to come across.
We know that God will provide a way. He always does show up for us all when we are doing His will. Our plan is to apply for grants, save money, have several fundraisers, and ask for donations. We believe there’s no better investment that we can make than investing in the life of a child.
Adoption is worth the cost!