This is something I've always wanted to do, since I was in high school I think. It's so gosh darn expensive though. I know you get tax breaks on it and you can get loans and grants to help subsidize the cost, but it's still a heck of a lot of money, something in the neighborhood of $15,000. I wish I had that kind of money that I would be able to do it. If I ever win the lottery that is first on my list of things that I would do with the money.I haven't given up hope of ever being able to do it - it would just take a lot of saving and using the resources out there (like adoption grants and employer benefits, Duke doesn't but other schools do) to be able to afford it. My friend Melissa just became a big sister. Her parents are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Armenia. Melissa, her mom, and her grandmother just traveled to Armenia to meet her. Her mom will be going back in a couple of months for the final part of the process. I have so many questions about it - how long did it take, what is a home study like, what does a final dossier look like? I've done cursory research on the interwebs but haven't done any serious searching. I know some countries are "friendlier" than others when it comes to single women adopting (Armenia is one of them). After I'm done with GRE and the doctoral application process that may be my next research project.
3 comments :
Actually adoption in Armenia is no easy. In order to adopt a healthy baby/child, it is a requirment that the adoptive parent be of Armenian ancestory.
Otherwise, non-Armenians get the very sick and disabled children.
$15,000 is WAY OFF base. It is $26,000 for a disabled child and about $35,000 for healthy children PLUS EXPENSES. Another requirement is your friend must be of the christian faith.
My friend's family is Armenian and I know it's more expensive to adopt there. Most starting figures I've seen for different countries I've seen is $15000, but that's not counting visas, travel, staying there, home stay, dossier prep, etc. I'm not completely naive about the cost or how labor intensive it is. I've done research, just not specific to a location/adoption organization.
Lastly, if your friends are Armenian they didn't have to use an adoption agency. Armenia in fact prefers PAPs (Prospective Adoptive Parents) to deal direct which is an independent adoption.
This would cut out about $10,000 that the Adoption agencies charge for processing paperwork that parents ultimately have to gather themselves.
As you know many Agencies are closing because of corruption and International Adoptions are down because they are finding that many children are not properly relinquished orphans. Armenia had only 32 adoptions to America in 2007, and 90% were to Armenian Americans - 6 of the children who were disabled went to non-Armenians.
Currently there are 113,000 paper ready American children in our foster care system waiting for homes. www.adoptuskids.org
for a fraction of the cost.
www.pear-now.org
Post a Comment