Last Week's Post

      Friends,
I am sorry to be posting this so late, but last week, Blogspot was not happy with me, and prevented me from uploading this. Sorry, and enjoy!


Hi all!

I hope that this latest installment finds you well, and that things having been going swimmingly for you (if you live near me, you might actually BE sw...imming, given all the rain we have had recently). Please forgive the brevity of the following post- I have reached the point in the basketball season where I live in a state of exhaustion, and so I have to channel all of my energy into teaching and coaching, leaving very little to be focused on writing. I hope you will forgive that. Only a few more weeks, and I will be able to go back to writing deeply meaningful (or at least pedantic) things. However, I will actually use this time to do something constructive, and so I hope you find your time well-spent.

At the request of one of our readers, I will spend the rest of the post answering the following question: "$30,000 seems like a lot of money to adopt a child. Where is all of the money going?"

My answer:

Yes, adoption is very expensive, and it does seem impossible that a simple thing like adoption shouldn't be that expensive. The only way to discuss this is to give readers a rough breakdown of the price list. First, approximately $3,000 is spent on the "home inspection". This 'inspection' is actually a background check run in conjunction with the FBI. To complete the inspection, you are required to hire a licensed inspector to liase between you and the FBI (and any state agencies that want your info). This inspection is only good for 1 year, and so, if after the inspection, we do not adopt within a year, we will be required to get another. The next major cost is birth-mother support. This amount typically ranges from $4,000-$8,000 depending on the circumstances of the birth-mother. Although it is illegal to pay a mother for her child, helping defray living and medical expenses. This money is needed, as birth-mothers choose prospective parents, and a family who cannot help out almost never successfully adopts. The next $10,000 or so goes to ANLC to help us advertise our availability to various networks across the United States. Without this money, prospective birth-mothers would have no idea of our existence, leaving us without a child. It seems pricey, I know, but sadly, even in what should be considered a "buyers' market", the whole process is run through a "sellers' market" paradigm. About $5,000 covers the legal fees/lawyers/court fees associated with legally transferring parenthood between two consenting parties. The final $5,000 or so covers the expense of travel, missed work, accomodations, and food while going to meet your child. Which means, in total, we are looking at right around $30,000, and all of that before a child can ever enter our home. I hope that for those of you looking for details, this post will provide the information that you are interested in. For the rest of you, thanks for reading along. I promise, soon, I will have the energy to write things that are witty and entertaining. Until then, thanks for reading, and we'll see you again next week.

-J&H-