When we announced our plans to adopt, we were blessed with many kind words of support and encouragement. We have also been asked many questions, and there have been some common threads. Since not all of you are here to ask questions in person, we thought it would be a good idea to answer them in our blog. Please feel free to ask if you have any other questions that are not covered here.

The two most common questions:

  • “What’s next or what all do you have to do?”
  • “How much does it cost?”

Here are the many steps to this process, with the costs involved:

  1. Pre-Application ($95)
    a. Required before we could be invited to Orientation
    b. Consisted of an 11 page application to be filled out by us and references from our parents, bosses, church leaders, physicians, friends and neighbor
  2. Orientation ($250)
    a. 2 day session
    b. Only 40 couples per year are invited to orientation at our agency.
  3. Complete Adoption Application (a mountain of paperwork)
  4. Turn in Adoption Application & Application Fee ($750).
  5. Raise funds (approx. $12,000) for agency & home study fees
  6. FBI Criminal Background Checks
  7. Home Study
  8. Write Birth Mother Letter & create photo album (portfolio)
  9. Receive approval and go on Waiting Families List
    a. Everything above must be done & up-front fees paid before this can happen.
  10. When chosen as adoptive parents, meet with birth parent(s) to determine if it would be a good fit.
  11. 24 hours later agree to placement & pay placement fee (additional $10,000 – $13,000)
  12. Establish contact expectations with birth parent(s) for rest of pregnancy & after the birth.
  13. Child is born.
  14. Take the baby home after a 48-hour waiting period (or whatever the requirement is for the state where the child is born).
  15. Finalize adoption in court.

Are you doing a domestic or international adoption?
We know that there are many children around the world who are orphans. We also know that there are also many children who need a loving family right here in the United States. We considered all the options, and came to the conclusion that we needed to adopt from the United States. The children closest to us need to be taken care of first.

Which type of adoption are you doing – regular or foster to adopt?
This was another option we explored. Both have risks. When we weighed all of these risks, we decided that at this time, it was wiser for us to go with a regular adoption this time around. It is much more costly than foster to adopt, but it is far less risky. There is always a chance that the birth parents will change their minds. However, our agency really works with birth parents to reduce this risk by working with them to make sure that this is what they want to do before adoptive parents are brought into the picture. An added benefit to this route is that the doors of communication will remain open between the birth parents and our family.

That’s a lot of money, how you raise the funds?

  • Fundraiser dinners at our churches in NM and TX
  • Garage Sale
  • Selling Some Musical Equipment
  • Building websites
  • Asking friends & family to invest in our child and donate to the adoption fund.
  • Asking friends and family who shop online to join our Pure Charity Rewards Network
    • Create an account.
    • Download the widget.
    • Shop!
    • If the Pure Charity Icon shows up in the top left corner, click on it.
    • Click on the percent giving description to claim it.
    • Browse any coupons they may offer to see if any will provide additional savings for you, and start shopping.
    • You may have to occasionally go to your giving fund to tell them where to donate the money.