Many people who are beginning to look into adoption as an option to grow their family end up asking this question. No matter if you are adopting from inside the US or from another country, adoption is expensive. Many people wonder if there are so many orphans in the world, why they can’t be adopted by their forever families at no cost. Wouldn’t that be the right thing to do, to find orphans and abandoned children good homes no matter if their forever family can afford it or not?
In a perfect world, this would be the case. Unfortunately, our world is less than perfect and very often messy. Throughout human history, people have been taking in orphaned or abandoned children and raising them as their own. Until recently in our history, this was an informal arrangement that was simply accepted once the family took in the child. In the majority of countries around the world, there are religious and cultural customs that encourage the care of orphans. As the world has modernized, the adoption process has evolved and more and more laws and regulations have been written and enacted to ensure the safety of children. These laws, rules and regulations have complicated the adoption process in addition to making it more expensive, as it costs money to monitor and enforce laws and regulations.
Sometimes, the process seems redundant and involves what you may think are unnecessary expenses. It is important to keep in mind that the process is what it is because it ensures the safety of the children who are being adopted. The legal hurdles do not exist to make it harder for good people like you to adopt children, they exist to prevent evil people from trafficking in children. For example, the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption exists set out rules for countries to follow so that international child trafficking is reduced.
While these laws do make the international adoption process longer and more expensive for you, they ensure that children around the world are not being bought and sold into forced labor, the sex trade or any number of terrible things. The children who are being adopted have little to no control over their fates. All these complicated laws exist to ensure that their safety is guaranteed and that their forever family will be a family of good people who will love and care for them. The reason the laws are so complicated and difficult is because the line between “child buying” and adopting can be seen as blurry and can be exploited by people trying to make money off of the lives of innocent children. Lawmakers have tried very hard to ensure that the laws are airtight and cannot be exploited.
The laws governing adoption can be tiresome, seem redundant and be a source of frustration. They also make the adoption process expensive, no matter where you are adopting from. Just as we need to pay taxes in order to have a good police force, reliable firefighters, public schools open to all and solid infrastructure, the adoption process costs money because the laws must be monitored and enforced. They require legal assistance to negotiate the courts, create costs that pay for things like visa fees, and require the professional services of one or two adoption agencies that are private not-for-profit businesses who employ qualified social workers. It would be wonderful if good, loving families could adopt orphaned or abandoned children at no cost, but unfortunately that is not the case.
Luckily, there are some ways in which the final cost of adoption is brought down. The federal government in the US created a ~$13,000.00 adoption tax credit, so families who have finalized their adoption will get some of their money back as a tax deduction. This credit can be claimed over multiple years if you can’t use the entire amount the year you finalize. Families can also apply for adoption grants, low- or no-interest adoption loans and hold fundraisers to help out with adoption costs.
At Family Connections, Inc., we keep our costs as low as we possibly can while providing exceptional service. We also provide our clients with the services of an adoption finance coach who will help to create a personal financial plan to fund your adoption, as well as help you apply for any and all loan and grant programs you may qualify for.
Please feel free to call Anita Stevens or Renee Hettich at 607-756-6574 or 1-800-535-5556 or shoot us an email at info@adoptfamilyconnections.org for more information. We would be happy to speak with you about any of your adoption questions.
Family Connections, Inc. is an authorized New York State adoption agency who has achieved Hague Accreditation from the Council on Accreditation. Family Connections, Inc. provides home study and post-adoption supervisory services for families adopting domestically and internationally. Family Connections, Inc. also acts as a Primary Provider for families adopting from Pakistan and Ukraine.
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