How much does adoption cost?
It is of course impossible to put a price tag on a child, but the down-to-earth truth is that there are business elements to adoption and it costs money. According to a survey by the national adoption magazine Adoptive Families, adoptions generally cost between $20,000-30,000. The survey found that “the majority of domestic newborn adoptions cost less than $25,000, while more than 75 percent of international adoptions cost more than $20,000.
If you are matched to a particular pregnant women who is planning adoption for her baby, some agencies (and most attorneys) may be willing to reduce their fees if the birthmother is on Medicaid or a private insurance plan—because that insurance will cover the prenatal care and the delivery of the child. This could lower your costs by thousands of dollars. Ask the agency or attorney whether fees are changed in any way if the birthmother has private insurance or is on Medicaid. Also, keep in mind that sometimes birthmothers choose to place their babies for adoption after the birth, when the child is a few months old or older. In that case, there should be no medical fees. Ask the agency or attorney what the fees are when that happens.
We, too, found the informational seminars very helpful. That’s how we met the social worker we are with now and decided on our agency. Just remember, you don’t have to go through an agency in your state. LGB – We were accepted by our agency in November, and then had a while to finish paperwork, get background checks, and create our portfolio (scrapbook) before the adoption classes in January. Our agency waited to do the homestudy after the adoption classes. We were open to adopt a child 4 years old or younger, but our social worker said that is so rare to see because foster parents in our state would typically have the first chance at adopting them. We were also open to any race or gender, yet our agency has very few minority placements, so we were told our wait time would not be influenced by that. However, each agency and state are so different. Our agency adoptions were almost always from expecting moms, so they told us to expect an infant. We did consider international, but we coul
