Why do they charge so much for adoption?

Question

why do we have all these unfortunate children in the world that we have to pay 30 thousand dollars to adopt i would love to give a child a better life but i really cant afford to adopt,why do they make it so expensive if these are children who desperately need homes.how would you go about adoption if you dont have alot of money its unfair to loving families who are willing and to children who need to be adopted.

Answer 1

In our adoption (international) there were fees that were paid to the agency to cover doing our background checks, the homestudy of our family and home, processing all the paperwork, jumping through the legal hoops in our state, our government and the child's country's government, translation fees, for the in-country reps that helped us while there, as well as their expert professional services to make the process more smooth and easy for us.

We paid notaries to notarize all of our documents, we paid secretaries of state to apostille thos notarizations.  We paid Immigration to process our paperwork and fingerprint us.  We paid the FBI to process our fingerprints at the federal level.  We paid the state to process our fingerprints at the state level and conduct child abuse and neglect background checks on us.

We paid the foreign government some fees for processing our paperwork, to offset some of their expenses in providing care to our children before we got them, the visa fees and passport fees...oh, and there was the fee for the medical exams of the girls before we could leave, too.

There are LOTS of people involved in a foreign adoption, all the folks at our agency here and there, the folks at immigration, FBI, state, the foreign government, the orphanage or foster family.  All these people lend their expertise or render their services and need to be paid for it.

I know that it's expensive.  There are some countries where it's more expensive than others.  When we were looking into adoption, Haiti was the lowest cost one to deal with.  At that time it was about $5,000.

You could also adopt from the foster system.  Those kids need loving, stable homes, too.  Foster care adoptions are free or nearly so (the state reimburses most of your out of pocket expenses).  Take all the stuff you've heard about foster care adoptions and throw it out.  Do your research.  Talk with families who've adopted through the foster system & ask them about their experiences with the system and with the kids.  It's not all bad like the media would make us believe.

Adoption doesn't have to be beyond anyone's reach because of finances.  Look into your options.

SG

Answer 2

i think because its like  a persons life, and they want to make sure that the child goes into a home that doesnt have one person working at burgerking for a living and the other a drug addict. if you know what i mean, they just want the kid to go into a home that they know will be able to afford another kid. i think they should lower the prices though.

Answer 3

Well, let me explain why adoption can be so expensive.  (Not all are, however.)

Most private adoptions are between 10K-40K and involve infants and young children, but many state adoptions (through foster care) are 0-$2000 and involve older school aged children, siblings, or very special needs babies and children (severel developmental delays, extreme medical issues, etc.)

Adoption fees are for all the services the agency provides to every birthmother helped.

Most full service licensed adoption agencies receive calls from hundreds of women a year. They may provide these women and their children with counseling, emergency food, clothing, formula and diapers, taxi fare, doctor visits, etc. and these are just the women who are NOT placing their babies for adoption.

And then there's the birthmothers who get housing paid for for 10 months, along with all their utilities, groceries, clothing, transportation, medical care, etc., and then choose to PARENT their babies.

Then there are the cases where a baby has been placed for adoption already, and the birthmother or birthfather then comes back before the adoption is finalized and tries to get custody of the baby from the adoptive parents. It often takes 1 - 2 years of court hearings and trials before the case is settled.

And then, there are the special needs babies that the agency reduces or eliminates the adoption fee for, so they may be adopted. These babies may have HIV, born with no brain, born blind or very ill.

And of course, there are the birthmothers who DO place their babies for adoption, and may recieve all the above mentioned -- housing, groceries, clothing, utilities, transportation, medical care, etc.

The agency pays for all of this. That is why adoption fees are so high. And if your adoption fails, good agencies try to absorb that financial loss, too - not the adoptive parent.

And then there are the lawyers. Agencies have to hire an attorney to represent the baby, one for the birthmother, and one for each named possible birthfathers. Sometimes a diligent search is conducted to find the birthfather, and sometimes a private detective has to be hired, too.

And there is office rent, phones, salaries, office supplies, etc.

You see, you do not pay JUST for YOUR child's birthmothers expenses and that is it. The expenses have to be paid for ALL birthmothers, so that those who do choose to place their baby for adoption, can. This is what it really takes to keep those doors open and those calls answered. That is where that fee goes.

Timeframe? With international adoptions taking longer and longer, domestic adoption agencies are getting more applicants, so the wait time is now getting longer, too. Expect 1-3 years on an average.

Hope that helps! Good luck to you!

And if you are able to parent to school aged children, why not go through the foster care systems?

Answer 4

I totally agree; I've often thought that.  A lot of good  people are denied parenthood due to the money aspect.

Answer 5

I think it costs so much because all of the aspects involved, from possibly supporting the birth mother during pregnancy, travel, paperwork, attorneys, home studies, etc......we have always wanted to adopt but thought it would be way to expensive, fortunately/unfortunately our niece had a baby 4 months ago and the court is in the process of terminating her rights......in the mean time we are doing foster care....as far as you question about how to go about it so it isn't as expensive you can contact your social services department and child protection, there are many children waiting for homes and usually there is very little costs if you go through the county....I wish you luck in the future, never give up hope you can adopt when the timing is right, where there's a will there's a way....

Answer 6

They gotta make sure the kids heathy and it depens on where your getting the kid if over seas it's gonna take alot of time to bring him to u!

Answer 7

Well, it could be from where the child is from, what's the health condition, all sorts of differant things.  I see it as you pay to adopt a child already born...and there future expensies.  It would add to the same person who is having the child if the chose to keep him/her.  Think of how much your docotor bills, medicine, vitiamins monthly, perscriptions, ultra-sounds exc...would be thru your whole 9 months.  Even if you had insurance you would still have a co-pay out of your pocket...and most people have to pay out of pocket for insurance anyways.  So, basically your paying for more then your co-pay because think of how much your paying just for insurance.

Answer 8

I completely agree with you. My husband and I would love to adopt but it is just to expensive.

Answer 9

I agree with you, but at the same time, there are ways to make it work.  

The reason why they charge so much is because, unfortunately, people have discovered that it is a good way to make money.  However, the children still need homes.  I am a homemaker and my husband makes less than $30,000 a year.  I would say that isn't much comparing to what most people bring in these days.  We adopted a little girl in September 06 and are working on adopting a little boy at the moment.  There are sacrifices that we have decided are worth making for the sake of having children in our home and being able to love them.  We do not go out for meals much any more, we have a budget and we stick to it.  We are selling our house that we just built to live in a cheaper house, not the same quality of home....but that doesn't matter.  I believe there is a way to adopt not matter how much money is being made in a household.

We adopted through Family to Family Adoptions Inc. (fam2fam.org) and it was about $17,000.  That included birthmom expenses.  I would also suggest looking into Catholic Social Services, if you are talking about not being able to afford to adopt, I would guess you are in the $30,000 a year range, and CSS bases the adoption fee upon how much money is brought in yearly.  

There are ways, Good luck!

Answer 10

try foster care its free and then when you adopt its not very much at all