How much did/will your adoption cost?

[grannypantiesrock]

I'm curious about how adoption costs vary. I'm going with an agency for open newborn adoption and I know they are expensive. If I add up every possible fee on their list, it comes to $45,000. Some of them have to do specifically with different states and would be mutually exclusive, but I'm still thinking we'll hit the $40K mark. I'm also curious about what you have been told to expect vs actual cost. I'm hoping they're not undershooting this estimate!

[lizblue]

I am not very far along in the process at all, but the agency I'm fairly certain we will go with is pretty transparent in their fee structure. If you add up the most costly possibilities for every scenario, we are looking at $38,000 max. It may be as low as $35,000 but I'm prepared for $40K.

[pinkie]

I'm almost afraid to add everything I will exclude travel costs but I think each of ours were in the 27-35 k range.

[drl]

$34k. They were very accurate and transparent with costs. We got 2/3 back from the adoption tax credit and DH's company's adoption reimbursement

[wishuponastar]

We are set to hit $35,000. As long as we dont run into extra lawyer fees. Our agency was very upfront about the cost, and we sort of paid as went which helped a bit- but the placement fee is the real killer.

[roxy]

We are adopting from the foster care system where TPR has already occurred. Our state will reimburse the agency for the cost of the home study. Should we decide to adopt outside of our state we would then need to reimburse the state. This was a good fit for us as we were not looking to adopt an infant. We also feel very strongly about maintaining an open adoption, if possible. I would love my future kiddo to maintain a connection with bio family.

[gnomesweetgnome]

I think it was 23k or so.

[lovelyplanet]

We are in the middle of the process but our estimate is $45k. Yikes.

[perumom]

We are doing an international adoption and so far we are at 16,000. We have to still factor in another 6,000 for agency cost and not to mention our stay in country and flights. All in all we estimate it will be a good 40k at the end. Yikes!!

[theatrepal]

I'm going to guess it'll be around $25k. I'm banking on the state sorting out health insurance with little ones that are adopted in that number. If they don't sort that out, it might be closer to $35k or $40k.

[badgergirl66]

There are a lot of variables, but we are planning on 25-30k.

[irismorning]

Mine were both private through a lawyer and I already had court appointed custody when I petitioned for adoption. My cost combined was under $10K.

[chicago]

Wow, some of these numbers are staggering to me. We are doing local domestic adoption. We think it will be less than $20K ... there are the unknowns of medical expenses but we have no idea what that may be.

[jenn]

We we will around the $35K mark as well.  

[nextchapter24]

Depends on a few things . Doing local domestic and should be under 20k

[pinkie]

Medical and/or living expenses can be significant. our first adoption had $7k in expenses. Our second had none.

[persianmaman]

For an internationl adoption, the total estimated figure for paperwork AND travel was around $20-25k. We are planning for the higher end because we could end up in the country for longer than three weeks (which is average).

This does not account for the expenses we also need to save up for while we are in country - covering care for our pets, the mortage. We plan on paying off some of our loans before we leave so we have less payments to worry about while we are off from work (car, one of my student loans, a personal loan...).

So maybe closer to $30k?

[perumom]

persianmaman, what country are you adopting from? Those numbers sound so good to me!!

[persianmaman]

perumom, we are adopting from South Africa. The agency fees for both the home study and the dossier are around 11k. The rest is all estimated travel costs for the flight, renting a home, needing to hire help (it is customary in Africa that if you have money, you hire help - so we will most likley have a driver, a maid/cook, etc. for our period of waiting).

[packerfan4life]

I would say with medical and legal costs we're probably in the $40k range. We hope to get a decent amount back in tax credit (once I figure that out) and we had some insurance reimbursement.

[perumom]

persianmaman, that's great!! I'm from peru originally and my family still has a house there but even with all that I'm still looking at 35k-40k:-(. Where are you in the process? South Africa sounds fantastic, and hubby has always wanted to travel there.

[hootiemommytobe]

When it's all said and done, I would guess ours will be around 25-30k.

[persianmaman]

perumom - We seem to be eternally trapped in the home study phase. Started to get worried we'll have to do our paperwork all over again. I thought we'd be waiting on a match by now.

[perumom]

Feb 21, 2015 10:33:15 GMT -5 persianmaman said:

perumom - We seem to be eternally trapped in the home study phase. Started to get worried we'll have to do our paperwork all over again. I thought we'd be waiting on a match by now.

Oh no!!! That part for us seem to be the quickest.  The slowest part was the clearances, they took FOREVER to come back.  Actually now we are in the waiting for a match part and I dread this will be the slowest part!! We are exactly at a year and two months since we started everything so I guess the whole thing has been a long time coming :-(  Is South Africa a hague convention country?