Did you know the cost of adoption? The finacial strains of adoption are a huge obstacle for many families planning to adopt. There are children in need of families all over the world and families who would love to adopt them, but can't because of the cost. The cost of a domestic adoption can cost more than $10,000, even when going through social services. An international adoption can cost much, much more. Many of the children adopted by Americans have special needs. Children with special needs often fare much better in the United States than their country of origin, we have the medical capabilities and services to help them live life to the fullest.
The federal adoption tax credit is set to expire. This credit is more than $13,000 which can be applied to all adoptions. In 2012, it will be just $6,000 for special needs children adopted from foster care. In 2013, it will expire completely.
Please sign this petition and call your senator and congressmen. 15,000 signatures are needed, we are just over 3,000 short. Help children find their forever families.
Thanks!
http://www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Application Accepted!
We just got word last night that our application has been received and accepted! Now we need to get started on our home study application. Since our agency isn't licensed for home studies in our state, we need to use another agency.
I started working on the application, and oh my does it require a lot of detail. We need 5 non-family local references, we just moved here 3 1/2 years ago, but we want to use friends who have known us longer. We need to go back and list every job we've had for the past 10 years and the salary! 10 years ago I graduated high school, so that's a lot of life guarding and similar jobs- I don't remember how much I made. We need to submit this preliminary application before we go into the big details. We'll need physicals, reports from the veterinarian that our cats are friendly and have all their shots up to date. We'll be fingerprinted and background checked. A social worker will visit our house and make sure everything is safe for a child.
Amazing! It can be frustrating, but maybe everyone should go through this before they have a child! It's funny to prepare your house for a child of an unknown age that won't be here for 2-3 years! We are so excited, and a little nervous. Now come some big payments to get things underway.
I started working on the application, and oh my does it require a lot of detail. We need 5 non-family local references, we just moved here 3 1/2 years ago, but we want to use friends who have known us longer. We need to go back and list every job we've had for the past 10 years and the salary! 10 years ago I graduated high school, so that's a lot of life guarding and similar jobs- I don't remember how much I made. We need to submit this preliminary application before we go into the big details. We'll need physicals, reports from the veterinarian that our cats are friendly and have all their shots up to date. We'll be fingerprinted and background checked. A social worker will visit our house and make sure everything is safe for a child.
Amazing! It can be frustrating, but maybe everyone should go through this before they have a child! It's funny to prepare your house for a child of an unknown age that won't be here for 2-3 years! We are so excited, and a little nervous. Now come some big payments to get things underway.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Application in the Mail!
We sent our application out on Wednesday! I dropped it at the Post Office so it would get there just a little sooner :-) It was a little sleuthing tracking down the amounts of my 401k from a previous employer, but everything else was straight forward. No begins our official 2-3 year "paperwork pregnancy"!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Talking in your sleep
My husband often sleep talks. It's usually hilarious. It's so funny that I keep a notebook on my night table to write down what he says. Once he said "if you sing while you eat, I'll give you all the money you need." I can't even type that without laughing. I have no idea what that means and he can't explain it either.
Last night he jumped out of bed and pulled the cord on the ceiling fan- which was not on as it is winter. I asked him what he was doing and this is what I wrote down from last night (he's C, I'm K):
C- I don't want the stuff to get on Kaylee
K- What stuff? Who's Kaylee?
C- The stuff from the attic is blowing
K- No it isn't. Who's Kaylee? (we don't have an attic, only a crawl space and there isn't a hatch to get into it)
C- Kaylee, you know
K- Who's Kaylee, is she from work?
C- No, she was here the other day
K- nobody was here the other day
C- The little girl from work
K- Your work? There are no kids there
C- Nevermind
And he lays back down and goes to sleep.
I asked him about it the next morning. He said he had a dream that the insulation was coming out of the crawl space and the ceiling fan was blowing it around. I asked him about Kaylee, but he didn't remember that part. We don't know any Kaylee's and there are no kids where he works, its a secure building- even I can't go in to the office. I wonder where he got that name, it wasn't on our short list! I guess kids/ the adoption were on his mind last night when he went to bed. :-)
Last night he jumped out of bed and pulled the cord on the ceiling fan- which was not on as it is winter. I asked him what he was doing and this is what I wrote down from last night (he's C, I'm K):
C- I don't want the stuff to get on Kaylee
K- What stuff? Who's Kaylee?
C- The stuff from the attic is blowing
K- No it isn't. Who's Kaylee? (we don't have an attic, only a crawl space and there isn't a hatch to get into it)
C- Kaylee, you know
K- Who's Kaylee, is she from work?
C- No, she was here the other day
K- nobody was here the other day
C- The little girl from work
K- Your work? There are no kids there
C- Nevermind
And he lays back down and goes to sleep.
I asked him about it the next morning. He said he had a dream that the insulation was coming out of the crawl space and the ceiling fan was blowing it around. I asked him about Kaylee, but he didn't remember that part. We don't know any Kaylee's and there are no kids where he works, its a secure building- even I can't go in to the office. I wonder where he got that name, it wasn't on our short list! I guess kids/ the adoption were on his mind last night when he went to bed. :-)
Friday, January 13, 2012
Financing the Adoption
This is the most daunting task of International Adoption! We always had Bulgaria in our hearts because we served as Peace Corps Volunteers there, but seeing the cost breakdown from the adoption agency was intimidating. I looked into domestic adoption, but our state contracts out most of its foster care, so foster-adopt programs weren't really an option for us. We looked into domestic private adoption, and several agencies are similiar in price to Bulgarian adoption, or much, much more. The benefit is, though, you will adopt a newborn if you adopt domestically if that is important to you. We looked into several other countries as well. Many countries we don't qualify for one reason or another or the price is so much more. So, Bulgaria was in our hearts and we were being led back there.
When looking at the cost of Bulgarian adoption, the price varies, but is somewhere between $20K-$30K. This is no small sum. The fluctuation in the price is due to the exchange rate- the fees paid to the Bulgarian agencies is 8,000 Euro, which is about $10,000. Then you must factor in travel, which varies depending on the season and the region of the country your child is in. We initially thought speaking Bulgarian would save us some money, but that barely makes a dent. We still need our documents officially translated and the Bulgarian agency will still provide us with a Bulgarian translator while we are in the country. Maybe we will save a few bucks on hotels and meals, but the savings there is insignifigant.
The adoption agency breaks the fees down, so you don't have to pay a huge sum all at once. Right now, we owe $600 for the application. Shortly we will need $2,000 for the homestudy, completed by another agency, since our agency isn't licensed in our state. We will then need $3,000 for our agency to get the adoption started.
So how do we pay for all this? Well, we have been saving money. Since we've moved back into our house (since the fire in July), we haven't gotten a home phone or cable TV. We are careful to eat in more often and buy things when they are on sale. I do most of our grocery shopping at Costco. My husband is forgoeing a car and biking to work. No easy feat- its about 8 miles each way! He can also work from home, which saves money and time. We decided to only get each other one gift this past Christmas, which was a relief from Christmas shopping!
We are also trying to earn extra money. We are renting out our parking spot- valuable in our city and a friend is staying with us for a few months and chipping in for household expenses. I am babysitting in my free time.
We also looked at our networth. The adoption is eating up our savings, but we both have 401k retirement plans. We are lucky that our house is increasing in value, not underwater like so many Americans. We looked up the value of our car, and it is worth what we still owe on it. Our only financial obligations are our student loans.
So does this all add up to $20,000? We know we have some things in our favor: we still have time to come up with the total sum. The child will be two years old, or older when s/he comes home- that $20K in childcare! However, it will be no easy task. Once the child is home s/he will need medical care and therapy, in addition to regular child-related expenses. I know we can make this work, its going to take ingenuity and hard work, but we will get our little one home!
When looking at the cost of Bulgarian adoption, the price varies, but is somewhere between $20K-$30K. This is no small sum. The fluctuation in the price is due to the exchange rate- the fees paid to the Bulgarian agencies is 8,000 Euro, which is about $10,000. Then you must factor in travel, which varies depending on the season and the region of the country your child is in. We initially thought speaking Bulgarian would save us some money, but that barely makes a dent. We still need our documents officially translated and the Bulgarian agency will still provide us with a Bulgarian translator while we are in the country. Maybe we will save a few bucks on hotels and meals, but the savings there is insignifigant.
The adoption agency breaks the fees down, so you don't have to pay a huge sum all at once. Right now, we owe $600 for the application. Shortly we will need $2,000 for the homestudy, completed by another agency, since our agency isn't licensed in our state. We will then need $3,000 for our agency to get the adoption started.
So how do we pay for all this? Well, we have been saving money. Since we've moved back into our house (since the fire in July), we haven't gotten a home phone or cable TV. We are careful to eat in more often and buy things when they are on sale. I do most of our grocery shopping at Costco. My husband is forgoeing a car and biking to work. No easy feat- its about 8 miles each way! He can also work from home, which saves money and time. We decided to only get each other one gift this past Christmas, which was a relief from Christmas shopping!
We are also trying to earn extra money. We are renting out our parking spot- valuable in our city and a friend is staying with us for a few months and chipping in for household expenses. I am babysitting in my free time.
We also looked at our networth. The adoption is eating up our savings, but we both have 401k retirement plans. We are lucky that our house is increasing in value, not underwater like so many Americans. We looked up the value of our car, and it is worth what we still owe on it. Our only financial obligations are our student loans.
So does this all add up to $20,000? We know we have some things in our favor: we still have time to come up with the total sum. The child will be two years old, or older when s/he comes home- that $20K in childcare! However, it will be no easy task. Once the child is home s/he will need medical care and therapy, in addition to regular child-related expenses. I know we can make this work, its going to take ingenuity and hard work, but we will get our little one home!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
New Year Resolutions
Happy New Year! One of my friends recommended that I start my New Year's resolutions the second week of the new year. Its a great idea if you think about it, trying to eat healthy Jan. 1st when the house is still filled with holiday sweets?
So my new year resolutions are to count my calories, in an effort to be healthier. I got an app for my phone where I can input what I eat and exercises. An most importantly, to finish my application and related paper work.
After much debating, we decided to go with Children's House International. There are many different agencies that are Hague accredited to complete adoptions in Bulgaria. I chose CHI after having my sister, an accountant, review their 990. I like that they are a large agency, with a great deal of resources. They are financially sound; some agencies were surprisingly in the red. They are in Washington State, so we will need another agency to do the home study, but I have spoken with some case workers at CHI and they provided me with agencies here in our own state. The hardest part for the application is tracking down all the financial information. How much is our house worth? Car, life insurance policies, 401k, etc? I have a few more things to track down, then we'll be ready to send it off!
So my new year resolutions are to count my calories, in an effort to be healthier. I got an app for my phone where I can input what I eat and exercises. An most importantly, to finish my application and related paper work.
After much debating, we decided to go with Children's House International. There are many different agencies that are Hague accredited to complete adoptions in Bulgaria. I chose CHI after having my sister, an accountant, review their 990. I like that they are a large agency, with a great deal of resources. They are financially sound; some agencies were surprisingly in the red. They are in Washington State, so we will need another agency to do the home study, but I have spoken with some case workers at CHI and they provided me with agencies here in our own state. The hardest part for the application is tracking down all the financial information. How much is our house worth? Car, life insurance policies, 401k, etc? I have a few more things to track down, then we'll be ready to send it off!
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