Writing about money is kind of embarrassing to me. It seems indelicate somehow. Yet it is such a real part of adoption. AND it is possible that God is calling someone to pray for our finances or even to donate. I know that the times I have contributed to someone else's adoption monetarily, I have felt like I was truly a part of their adventure and doubly rejoiced when they traveled to get their children. I wouldn't want to cheat someone out of that blessing :) :) :)
A special needs adoption using About A Child is estimated at $19,000-$22,000. Before you gasp in shock and assume that this money is being used to line the pockets of some shyster in a dark back-alley somewhere in Eastern Europe, here are the price break-downs provided by AAC. As you can see, the different areas can have a lot of variation. The country program fee is used for things like translation of a ton of documents from English to Abby's language and probably half a ton of documents from her language to English, lots of document fees, court fees and I'm not really sure what all. I have an itemized list but can't remember what all it includes at this second.
AAC Estimates/Our Actual Costs (Paid So Far)
Case management fee: $3,000/$3,000 ($2650)
Homestudy: $350 + mileage / $650+mileage ($600+$75.20) includes required educational classes
Homestudy Hague Review by AAC: $250 $250 (0)
Four required post-placement reports: $1,000/ $800 ($800)
Country Program Fee: $10,000 /$10,000 ($2000 pd + $1290 saved)
Passport for adults:/ $110 ($110 + $5.29 for picts)
Passport for child: /I'm not sure how much this will be
USCIS application: $720/ $670 ($670)
Fingerprints for USCIS: $160 for married couple/ $160 ($160)
Medical and police clearances, marriage license, birth certificates,
other dossier documents: $100-$300/ $320.20 ($305.20)
Notary and Apostille: $150-$500 / $200-250 ($30)
Visa for child+immigrant visa security surcharge: $400/ $404 (0)
Child's medical evaluation: $100/ $100 (0)
Travel & Lodging: $5,000-$7,000 / I don't have a clue yet. I just saw Jan tickets for $1280 per person, round-trip
Other Expenses:
Reece's Rainbow: $275 ($275)
Photocopies/Mailing/FAX/printing: total unknown ($218.21 so far)
It is amazing to me that in the months since agreeing to adopt Abby, God has helped us pay almost $6,550 toward her adoption and save another $1290 toward the program fee. Our most immediate needs are for apostilles, program fee (total due by first travel), and actual travel costs for our first trip which I'm thinking could be in January. If you'd like to contribute to Abby's adoption fund, please click on her picture to the right. All funds donated through Reece's Rainbow are tax-deductible and are actually donated to Abby, not specifically to us. When I last checked we had $5 in this fund. (Thank you so much to whoever donated it.) This is a protection of your investment because, if for some reason we could not continue her adoption, the money would stay with her and bless her new family.
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