$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $!!

On Friday, I received an email about how wonderful it was to adopt from Kazakhstan. The kids were young and healthy and they still allowed singles to adopt without too much trouble. I’ve been thinking of another child on and off for a couple of years but I’ve not really done anything about it. That in and of itself, I guess, is proof of how content I am. With Fifi and Buddy, I would not be deterred.

My lethargy has been a sign I just wasn’t ready, but lately, I’ve really been feeling the itch to start scheduling homestudy appointments and appostiling documents.The climate for adoptions is pretty poor in Russia right now and waits are long. When I read this email I thought it was a sign. Maybe Kazakhstan was the way to go.

I’d already decided on an agency should I ever adopt again. The agency I used for Fifi is out of business and the agency I used for Buddy is not accredited. I went to their website to check out the prices for Kazakhstan. Lo and behold, the price was $50-57,000! This price included travel, which is expensive due to the long time required in country. But holy-moly!

When I adopted Fifi, my father had just passed away and I had a life insurance policy I used to pay the bulk of the adoption fees and I put the travel expenses on my Visa. To put it in perspective, her adoption was expensive, but I’d equate it to purchasing a used Ford Focus. Most of us can afford it, but you generally still need some financing.

When I adopted Buddy three years later it was about 50% more. That was some kind of inflation! No measly 3-4% for the land of desperate parents. They know we’ll pay. Buddy’s adoption cost me somewhere in the range of a nice Toyota Camry. Still affordable, but the payment takes a bite out of the budget.

But $57,000! Now were in the land of the Mercedes. Those are only for "rich" people.

My kids were some of the lucky ones. When I used up my savings, I was able to beg and borrow them home. They don’t have college funds and we just last year managed to replace our 1995 truck. But others aren’t that lucky.The point of this post is not to begrudge any of the money I spent to find my kids. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

But the costs spiral out of control and hundreds of thousands…millions of kids probably, sit in orphanages because of these costs.This week, lets discuss creative ways to finance adoption.

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