Understanding the cost of adoption

Building a family through adoption can be expensive. Although, I believe without a doubt that if God has called a couple to adopt, then He will provide the means necessary to bring their child or children home. When it comes to embryo adoption, we feel very much at peace about spending the money necessary to make this happen, and it also happens to be one of the most affordable adoption choices.

"Isn't embryo adoption going to cost you a whole lot of money? Isn't it basically just as much as doing in vitro?" is a question I've gotten a few times since we've decided to do this. The answer is no, it is actually much more affordable because we are not paying for the steps involved with actually creating the embryos and having them frozen.

Here is a breakdown of adoption costs for the various types of adoption. All this information is taken from our agencies webpage: www.nightlight.org because they handle all forms of adoption: embryo, domestic, international, and foster. I will be sharing some of our personal financial information simply as a means of making it real to those of you who may be considering adoption in one form or another.

Foster adoption is the least expensive form of adoption, but if a couple has their heart set on adopting an infant, it can be an emotional and challenging route to take. We adopted our twins through the foster system but it was never a guarantee that we would be able to keep them until we had loved them for 14 months. The Lord definitely called us to that at the time and gave us the strength to get through those long months. I think in the end the actual adoption costs were about $300.

International adoption is the most expensive choice and depending on the country you are adopting from, and the number of required trips, your total estimated costs for an adoption can range from $25,000 – $43,000

Domestic adoption comes next. In general, the cost of an agency adoption through Nightlight will be approximately $18,000. You will also need to hire an attorney for the finalization of the adoption. In general, depending upon the individual characteristics of your adoption and the cost of obtaining an attorney in your state, your total cost may be approximately $20,000 – $25,000. There are a few states that do not require you to adopt through an adoption agency which would significantly lower the cost of a domestic infant adoption, but Colorado is not one of those states.

Embryo adoption costs can vary greatly depending on if you choose to work with an agency or not. In the eyes of the law, embryo adoption doesn't really exist because embryos are considered property, not persons, but there are certain agencies who view embryos as life and therefore go through the same steps for an embryo adoption as is required legally for a domestic adoption. There are also websites you can find to be matched with a genetic couple, making it unnecessary to work with an adoption agency, but you would then need to hire your own attorney to manage the legal side of things. Shaun and I chose to work with an agency because we feel more comfortable with them dealing with the legal aspects. And, this way we know that the genetic family can be at ease about who we are due to the fact that we were required to have an adoption home study done. The extra cost was worth it in our minds.

Here is a breakdown of the cost of embryo adoption:

Snowflakes Program fee: $8,000, Home study agency fee: $1,000-3,000

Fertility clinic frozen embryo transfer fees: $3,000-5,000

TOTAL FEES: $12,000-16,000

We were able to forgo the cost of the home study since ours was completed through our foster care agency. And, we are travelling to the embryos in Michigan to do the frozen embryo transfer, which cuts $2000 off the program fee, so our total expenses will be right around $10,000 if the first transfer results in pregnancy. We are praying it does!