How much?

I have had a few people ask me “how much is this adoption costing you?” I don’t really consider these questions rude. For one thing, I think most people who know me know that I am not generally uncomfortable discussing money (although I understand that some people are). Also, I think the people who have asked are either adopting themselves from a different agency, or seriously considering whether they have the funds to adopt.

So, I’ve decided to go out on a limb and be brutally honest. (Also, my husband, out of curiosity, asked me last night exactly how much we have spent so far.*)

So, this is how it breaks down:

1. Application to agency $200.00
2. Payment to homestudy agency for homestudy $1,200.00
3. Three copies of birth certificates of Husband and self $97.00
4. Ohio criminal background check for Husband and self $64.00
5. Dossier fee to agency $2,795.00
6. Three certified copies of marriage certificate $6.00
7. Immunizations (so far) $590.00
8. Application to USCIS (I600A form) $685.00
9. Payment to International Adoption Doctor $150.00
10. Local police background check (two adults) $10.00
11. Ohio county certification (10 documents) $10.00
12. Ohio Sec. Of State certification (10 documents) $50.00
13. Michigan Sec. Of State Certification (2 docs X 2) $4.00
14. Parking ticket incurred while at Michigan SoS $10.00
15. Program fee to agency, which is almost $2,000 less than
our agency’s usual fee for Vietnam, because Lan was a
waiting child, and which I am getting ready to send $8,500.00

So, the grand total so far is $14,371.00

Obviously, there will be significant travel costs in addition to this amount. We are eligible for a roughly $10,000 tax credit in the year that the adoption is finalized (and we can carry over any left over tax credit for at least one more year, I’m not completely clear on that), and we may (and I stress may) be eligible for a $2,000 county grant – however, our income may exclude us from that.

Anyway, for people considering this, that’s the breakdown and the bottom line, at this point of the game.

For comparison, our health insurance carrier paid roughly $10,500 for my pregnancy with Gabriel and his delivery and our care for four days in the hospital (the most expensive part being the 8 hours Gabe spent in the “transitional nursery” after his birth, which is one step down from NICU – owing to the cord incident at his birth).

LM

* being as we were bored and upset about gas prices after watching the news, I also figured out last night how much we spent last July on gasoline, as compared to how much we spent this July. If you are interested, we spent $224 on gas last July, with an average cost per fill up of $17.05 (this is actually skewed a little high, owing to two fillups in Chicago, which were $5.00 more expensive than any other fill up). We drove to Chicago and back last July, as well as to my friend H~’s wedding in northern Michigan (about 5 hour car trips in each direction, for a total of 20 hours of car trips). We spent $175 on gas this July, with an average fill up costing $25.90, and we haven’t traveled anywhere this summer – so, we filled up less than half the number of times we filled up last summer, and spent only $50 less. It’s just…depressing. And we both own cars that get roughly 30 mpg. I cannot imagine what people are doing who have cars that don’t get that kind of gas mileage – pulling their hair out, I guess.