There is no question about it adoption is expensive. Most people who adopt have to save for years in order to be able to afford adoption. Some people prefer to take out personal loans in order to finance their adoption more quickly. The average domestic adoption in the US can run between twenty to thirty thousand dollars.
Some people falsely believe that David and I had a pile of money just sitting in the bank and were able to finance our adoption without any financial struggles. Our adoption finance story is nothing less than a miracle. After researching and praying about adoption for our family we began to save money in an adoption account. We applied for adoption grants, but were not approved for any of the grants we had sought out. After months and months of saving and getting nowhere fast we had basically given up on adoption being a reality for our family. I remember telling David one afternoon that if God wanted us to adopt he was going to have to make a check turn up in our mailbox, because without a financial miracle we would never be able afford adoption. We were not willing to go into debt for adoption, we had been there and done that during our efforts to conceive Caleb.
No more than three days after I told David that a miracle check would have to arrive in order for us to adopt we received a check in the mail. We were both shocked and puzzled. The check was from the IRS for overpayment of taxes. After contacting our tax accountant it was determined that a transposed number on our tax forms had been detected and corrected and the IRS had sent us a repayment check. Since David pays his taxes quarterly we did not realize he was overpaying. We knew we were paying a lot of taxes but we assumed our tax accountant had told us the correct amounts that we should be paying. The check was large enough to cover 1/2 of the average cost for adoption. This check gave us the hope we needed to continue our adoption quest. With our hope restored we began to be more aggressive with our savings and monitoring of our spending. We were both ecstatic when we finally had enough money squirreled away to move forward with our adoption plans.
Most people will not have a financial miracle occur and will have to find other ways of raising funds for adoption. Listed below are ways that others I know have raised funds to help offset the cost of adoption. You should also open a separate account in which to maintain and monitor your adoption funds, this will help you track your saving goals more easily.
- Spending Habits– Make changes to your spending habits buy only what you have to have. We were able to save about $500 a month just by evaluating every dollar that we spent, and only spending what was necessary. If you are unwilling or can not do this you will probably never be able to gather the finances needed to peruse adoption.
- Employer donation– some companies will pay a small amount toward the adoption of a child.
- Yard Sales/silent auctions– family and friends donate items and all proceeds are used for the adoption fund
- Arts/Crafts– Are you and your family into arts and crafts if so you can you make stuff to sell on-line or at farmer markets, or antique shops.
- Host Dinners/breakfast– you can do this at your church and ask those who attend to donate to your adoption fund.
- Product Sales– donuts, fireworks, candles etc. It has been rumored that with TNT fireworks you can make up to $5000 profit for just a few days of work if you sale during peek season (4th of July and New Years).
- State Adoptions– check you states Foster-to-Adopt program. These adoptions cost much less than other adoptions
- Home Refinance– several years ago people could refinance their homes and use the savings to beef up adoption funds quicker. This option may still work depending on the type of home loan you have.
- Adoption Grants: These can be located online and many adoption agencies have information concerning grants that can be applied for.
- Church donation– some churches will help pay adoption cost as part of their charitable giving.
Hopefully this list will help to get your creative juices flowing if you are trying to raise funds to pay for an adoption.