Shortly after we got married we started to do research on where we would go to adopt. I never saw any signs around town that say “This way to orphanage”. This may make sound really naive but when we started I almost expected it to be like in the movies “Annie” or “Stewart Little” (although we were open to any kids a mouse was never an option) We were in for such a surprise.
Would you be surprised to learn it is easier buying a house than it is to find a child to call your own? At least with a house you can just call a realtor but who do you call to find a child?
If you get your local yellow pages and flip to adoption you will find many listings of organizations for private adoption or if you want to put your child up for adoption. There was none that say “Hey if you are looking for a child call here”. So I began at the A’s and started calling and was very surprised by some of the answers we were getting.
When I kept getting asked what our annual wages were before they would even begin to discuss the process with us. Then they proceed to ask if we wanted an infant, a toddler or an older child. We really had not considered an infant, because frankly we know they get adopted so easily. The only kids were interested in were toddlers or children under the age of 5. When they heard that we heard well to adopt a child in that age range it would be 25% of your annual salaries or $25,000.00 for a child of color or 30% or $30,000.00 for a white child. Can you believe it? They put a price like on a child and depending on the ethnicity the rates are different! I was in total shock and disbelief.
Boy, did we have a lot to think about. I never in a million years would have thought that a domestic adoption of a child in the foster care system would cost that much.
Skipping a head for a second here… Don’t panic if you are considering domestic adoption there are organizations that do not charge these kinds of fees. I will get to that in an upcoming entry.
Thanks for reading, talk again soon!
Related Blog:
http://adoption.families.com/blog/why-we-chose-adoption