It seems like we've been getting this question ever since we announced our plan to adopt back in January. This is understandable, since the process is quite long and varies between states and between agencies. Up until this point, there was no clear answer, since we hadn't officially begun the process.
Back in February, we announced that we had chosen to work with "Agency C," more commonly known as Adoption Support Center. (You can learn more about them here.) Once we decided who we wanted to work with through this whole process, it was time to look at the fine details, also called the budget. Through ASC, our adoption will cost between $28,000-$40,000. Most of this money goes toward the attorneys, social workers, counselors, and other professionals that will help us and our birth mother through the next few months. The wide range in fees is due to us not knowing up front if the woman we will be matched with has medical coverage. If she has private insurance or is covered on Medicaid, we won't face many medical bills. However, if she does not have insurance, we could be responsible for some of her medical care.
It's certainly a daunting task to try to find an extra $40,000 in our budget, so we decided to focus on simply getting through the home study. Once we have a completed home study on file, we become eligible to apply for adoption grants, as well as no- and low-interest loans. So, breaking out just the first few months, the portion of the adoption process that happens before the home study, the total fees fell from $40,000 to just about $10,000. While this was still a huge goal to accomplish, it was much more feasible to focus on just this portion.
We are forever grateful for all of you who contributed to our #BeardForBaby campaign on Facebook and Twitter. With all of your support, we raised over $2,500, which in and of itself pays for the home study. By selling unused household items, squirreling away tax refunds, cutting our cable bill and cell phone bills, limiting our dining out to less than once a week, and depositing raises and bonuses directly into the baby's bank account, we have finally reached our goal of having $10,000 earmarked for the adoption!
So, where are we with the adoption? We have officially signed on to partner with ASC. We have our intake meeting with them next week, Tuesday, August 11. At this meeting, we'll fill out a mountain of paperwork, write the agency a sizable check, and learn more details about what the coming months will hold for us. We already know that on Friday, September 11, we will have a full-day home study class at the agency. It's at this class that we will learn what we need to do to prepare ourselves and our home for the study. We will also attend a "ready the nest" class to help us, you know, ready our nest.
We are so excited to "officially" begin the adoption process! It feels like it's been a long time coming, (eight months now of scrimping and saving, worrying and dreaming about how the next year or so will go, but who's counting). We still have many more months ahead of us, months filled with mountains of paperwork, bills, doctor appointments, and preparing our home for the visit, but also months filled with shopping for a crib, car seats, picking paint chips for the nursery, and with getting ready to bring Little Laskey home at last!
