The Cost of Adoption

[7rin]

From Adoption Advertising

There are many more couples looking to adopt babies than there are babies available. The cost of an individual adoption can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. Living expenses vary depending on the length of the pregnancy and the temperament of the individual birthmother. Keep in mind, some states cap living expenses, some don't. Also, professional costs vary from state to state. It's also important to remember that economy is not always the best strategy. You definitely want to make sure that the professionals handling your case know what they are doing.
The following is a range of total costs and the minimum budget we require to work with us.. It does not include your homestudy, adoptive parent travel costs, and some states birth mother medical expenses, but does include our fee, travel costs for the birthmother, living expenses, social work and legal fees.

Caucasian: $25K - $40K Min. Budget of $25K
Biracial: $18K to $25K Min. Budget of $18K
AA: $15K to $20K Min. Budget of $15K

Of course, everyone wants the most economical adoption possible. We normally give the cases with little or no living expenses to adoptive parents that have had fall-thrus. Last minute situations or those with the baby already born, which by their nature are cheaper, require adoptive parents that are willing to act swiftly and take some risks. There are often unknowns about the birthfather, CPS involvement and drug use. If you are the kind of adoptive parent that wants to know everything about a particular situation then an almost or already born situation is not for you.

It doesn't matter

[7rin]

Quoting kamio over at AAAFC

{quote}
It doesn't matter to me whether I am better off adopted, or if my life with my bmother would have been crap. It does not shift the deep longing and pain inside.

This is what non-adoptees don't understand. You cannot apply logic to emotions. They can tell me over and over that it's best to be in a stable environment, etc.

Does that cancel out the anxiety, depression, fear of abanonment, interpreting everything as rejection, the poor self-esteem, bad impulse control? Hell no! They are embedded deep within my psyche, from childhood.

And because of their assumptions about why adoption is better etc, this leaves no room to understand the emotional issues, or create therapies for it. Because that would mean rethinking adoption.
{/quote}

Customers Leave Note for Pregnant Waitress Asking to Adopt Her Baby

[7rin]

May 22, 2008
Customers Leave Note for Pregnant Waitress Asking to Adopt Her Baby
Written by Kristen Gosling

{quote}
A pregnant waitress in suburban Seattle, Washington got more than a tip from her customers. They also left a card asking if they could adopt her unborn baby.

JD Ross and Julie Moore are expecting their first child. The young mom who is five months pregnant was waiting tables at a Mill Creek restaurant Monday night when a table of 12 adults ordered a round of cocktails. After they left she opened the billholder to get the tip and also found this card inside: "We wish to adopt a baby. We are a caring, happily married, financially secure and loving couple. We want to share our joy and love with a child." It included the names of the couple and phone numbers.

Julie said, "I was just shocked because they didn't say a word to me about being pregnant, ask me how my pregnancy is going or ask me if I was pregnant or anything." "I thought it was really creepy," said JD Both of them say it was a rude slap in the face. Julie said, "I don't wear a wedding ring at work for them to assume I'm not married or that I'm working in a service industry that I maybe couldn't afford to have a child. I don't know; I felt there were too many assumptions there. The couple on the card has not returned our calls. We called the attorney's number on the card and asked for "Joan." Then we learned "Joan" doesn't exist.

Seattle adoption attorney Albert Lirhus said the couple handing out the card are his clients. He said "if people call our office ask for "Joan" then the phone answerer knows the call is a priority." And as far as the card is concerned, he said, "We haven't had any negative response to this method."

JD and Julie sympathize with parents looking to adopt but the way this went down troubles them. JD said, "It's way out of bounds it's not right. It's not how you go about it." The attorney said many couples looking to adopt post fliers or ads to get the word out. But he said they usually do not go to specific people and calls this incident "unfortunate."
{/quote}

Time to suspend inter-country adoptions?

[7rin]

May 16, 2012

Time to suspend inter-country adoptions?
by Danish Raza May 16, 2012

{quote}
Mayank and Esha were to get new parents. Their mother, after an altercation with her husband, Ramphal, abandoned the siblings near Kashmere Gate bus terminus, Delhi. A frantic Ramphal traced his children to Holy Cross Social Service Centre- one of the seven recognised Indian placement agencies (RIPAs) in the city. He was not allowed to see the kids, then three and five years old. The agency had started the process to place the children with an Australian couple.

“They said that I should let my kids go abroad as they would have a better future,” Ramphal told Firstpost.

He then moved the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to stall the adoption process. There he was constantly persuaded to drop the case. Haq Centre for Child Rights, a Delhi based NGO, helped Ramphal in getting a revised CWC order. The kids were returned to their father in February.

In declaring the children legally free for adoption in the first place, the CWC violated a basic principle guiding the welfare of a child – which is to first attempt to restore an abandoned child to his/ her biological family.

Some child welfare experts claim that Ramphal’s case is an example of widespread abuse in international adoptions, pointing to a recent spurt of middlemen who procure children by illicit methods and provide false information about them.

“There should be a detailed investigation into procurement of children through extortion, blackmail, threats and bribery of government officials,” said Anjali Pawar of Sakhi, a Pune based NGO which filed a petition in the Supreme Court earlier this month demanding moratorium on all inter-country adoptions until a new law is in place.

( Read more... )