How Can You Put a Price Tag On A Child?

Many people do not realize how very expensive adoption can be. In most cases, when you tell people how expensive it is they rant and rave about how adoption should be free. I disagree.

I think the adoption process, as long and arduous as it is, has a purpose to genuinely protect the child and to ensure they are going to a family who will love them, care for them, and sacrifice what ever it takes to provide for them.

It's true, you CAN NOT put a price tag on a child. One thing you must realize is that as adoptive parents we are NOT buying a child. We are paying for the process to get the child legally! The process costs money in fees to our government, fees to the government of the country we are adopting from, and fees to the agency helping us to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

Think about it this way, if adoption wasn't so expensive then many individuals who should NOT have children in their care would obtain them more easily. According to U.S. Today, the U.S. Department of Justice has confirmed that human trafficking has become the second fastest growing criminal industry -just behind drug trafficking- with children accounting for roughly half of all victims. Of the 2,515 cases under investigation in the U.S. in 2010, more than 1,000 involved children. Can you imagine if the adoption process was free how many more children would be taken advantage of!  No, I am thankful that adoption is not free!

Yes, for a family who is definitely not rolling in the dough, this is going to be difficult. Trying to raise money is humbling, very humbling.  But I KNOW it will be worth it.  And one day, my little girl will be confident of how much we love her because of how much we fought to do what was best and that we were willing to pay every penny for the process to be done right!  She will also look back at all of you who were willing to make sacrifices and help us raise money so we could bring her home as quickly as possible.  So, this is my plea, if you have not wanted to contribute financially because you think it's wrong to "pay for a child" then please reconsider and donate to our adoption today!

In addition, for those of you who do not understand the in's and out's of adoption cost;  please keep reading to see a list of typical fees associated with an adoption from China. These are just estimates.  Many agencies can charge more or less than the listed amounts but this seems to be the average. In addition, if you are adopting domestically or even from another country this will look very different. But, for those of you who have never understood why adoption is so expensive I hope this helps.

The General Specifics

As I was glancing over our blog, I realized that we had not shared some pretty significant aspects of our adoption with many of you. Here are some things that we get asked about often that you might just want to know!

· We will be adopting a child from the “waiting child” program. This means our little girl will have a “special needs” medical condition of some kind.
· Many of the “special needs” conditions are either correctable or manageable through the advanced medical resources readily available in the U.S.
· The China adoption process (for “special needs” children) takes between 18-36 months to complete because of verifications that need to be made, matching the parents with the appropriate child, and travel.
· We will be adopting a little girl who will be between 1-3 years of age when we pick her up from China (most likely we will get her around her 2nd birthday). So, in essence, she could be born any day now if not already!
· We are using CCAI (Chinese Children Agency International) as our Adoption Agency. They are fully licensed and Hague approved. In fact, CCAI, is the #1 ranked China-focused adoption agency. CCAI has found loving homes for over 10,000 abandoned children.
· The United States became part of the Hague Convention in 1994. This organization helps to establish international agreements to safeguard inter-country adoptions though set international standards and guidelines for inter-country adoptions.
· The average China adoption costs between $28,000 - $35,000. For more specifics please check out this this post.

Chinese Children Adoption International

Well friends, we finally choose an agency!  Lots of considerations went into this decision.

A couple months ago I was out and about I had run into a family who had adopted from Ethiopia and was also in process of adopting a healthy child from China (which takes approximately 5-7 years).  I had asked them lots of questions and just tucked away the information. 

A few weeks ago we had finally narrowed down our options to two agencies. On the night we were trying to make a decision, I asked Josh, “Have you looked up CCAI?” Neither of us had.   Josh spent an hour or so scouring their website and then went out on the porch to call them.  He was on the phone for about 90 minutes and when he walked back in the front door he said with a big grin, “I really like them!”  The very next day, we received a huge package in the mail with tons of information from CCAI.   We were so excited.  We had a date night planned to discuss adoption stuff and spent the whole evening pouring over the information, watching a video, and praying about our decision.  By the time we got home that evening we were convinced this was the agency for us!

Here are just a few of the many reasons why we choose CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International):

·      On July 1, 2012 CCAI celebrated placing 10,000 Chinese orphans in loving homes since 1994!  They are currently placing approximately two children into loving homes every day!  In regards to Chinese adoptions, they are the most experienced agency in the U.S. and continue to maintain an excellent reputation.

·      The China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), which holds the highest authority in China for international adoptions, has ranked CCAI as the #1 agency out of 178 agencies they work with to place children in homes all over the world!

·      CCAI has placed over 2,000 children with special needs!  This number is growing drastically!

·      Joshua and Lily Zhong, the founders of CCAI, are Christians who understand the call to care for orphans.  They adopted two children of their own and began CCAI because of their passion and theology.

·      The staff that we have already spoken with is extremely friendly and helpful.  They have been answering all our questions, referring us to information on their website, sending us printed forms, and even referring us to over 30 couples living near us who have completed the adoption process through their agency.

For more information please check the CCAI website and if you would like to watch a video that better explains the founders vision and purpose please click here.  I promise you it won't be a waste of your time!

Pancake Picnic

As we were trying to make final decisions about which agency to partner with, we discovered that both agencies we were interested in would require us to pay a first installment prior to the home study fee.  This is not what we were anticipating since most of the people we had spoken with who had adopted said that they began fundraising and applying for grants after they had completed their home study.  This motivated us to go ahead and get the ball rolling with additional fundraising ideas.  One of the easiest to throw together was our Pancake Picnic.

We invited all our neighbors but not too many were available to come.  I almost cancelled the event in hopes to reschedule for another night, but my sweet husband encouraged me not to.  We had six people come and because of their generosity we raised over $100!  Can you even believe it?!?  We are so thankful for how God continues to show his faithfulness to provide.

The request was made by a few people to have another pancake night, so who knows, maybe you'll be seeing another post like this one in a few weeks (or months) from now.