Paying for adoption?

Okay, so I know people wonder, and Brian's friend outright asked not so long ago, how we keep paying for adoptions.  I know I, for one, always thought adoption was for the rich.  That's how the movies portrayed families/parents anyways.  I just assumed we couldn't, which was part of the reason it took us so long.  It took me a long time to take the time to sit and research enough to know that it was possible if you really were creative and tried hard.

So, yes, we make well under $100,000/year with our two incomes combined...think less than 50...after taxes.  We have no credit card debt.  We've always bought only what we could pay for at the end of the month and when we paid off our cars the last time we intended to never get a car loan again, so we have pretty old vehicles, minus our primary ride.  Granted, if some of them died now we might have to get a loan, but again can't afford that, so we'd have to get creative yet again.  So with only our house to pay for, we've saved every penny and dime we could over the past 7-8 years in anticipation of each adoption, with the exception of the last; since you couldn't prepare for that.  So Brian was right in telling him part of it was because his wife is careful with our money.

The other things we've done is sold a pool table we had years ago, cash out our life insurance and buy term instead, a small amount was through fundraising and we applied for grants like crazy each time.   We were also loaned a portion of the money for the first two adoptions by family which we paid off with our tax credit the first year.  The first two adoptions were estimated to cost a little under $20,000 for everything including finalization.  We managed for $15,000 or less due to grants and fee reductions (you do have to ask)  since they were special needs adoptions and our income and circumstances qualified.  The last was estimated to cost closer to $40,000 and I think we ended up closer to $30,000 in the end with a gift for part of it, the rest of our savings for part of it and a large portion was refinanced and cashed out of our house.  We took all we could out of our house, to 80% anyways.   We do, I guess, have a loan for our adoption, so to speak, but we felt this was worth everything to do.  In the end, our loan rate was lower and we saved in interest what we borrowed for the adoption....win, win to us!

The point being, we came out debt free as far as adoptions go.  We have no savings left, but every dime has always been worth it.  We have always been in the habit of being very frugal; aka cheap!  It's actually become the lifestyle over time.  But, without being this way, a family on our income could not afford adoption.  So, can it work for you?  Yes!  If you want something you just have to work for it.  It was stressful a lot of times.  We had no idea where some of the money was going to come from.  The first adoption was 12 months, start to finish.  The 2nd was 6 months and the 3rd was 2 months.  We've never had a lot of time to come up with money, but it was always there through all these avenues, when we needed it.  I guess, in ways, I can't truly explain how we afforded the adoptions.  Things just worked out the way they were supposed to because we followed Him and His plans for us.

So if you believe in God and believe this is what He wants for you, believe He will bring you through it.  If you don't believe so much, then try and make it work.  You may just end up believing more firmly in God, in the end.




Lisa