Costs vary widely from adoption to adoption depending on agency and whether the adoption is foreign or domestic. Adopting through CPS is free. There may be an approximately $80 lawyer fee for processing the finalization papers with the court. Many CPS kids are also eligible for Medicaid, college scholarships, and assistance for any other special needs they may have. China averages about $20,000 per adoption. Then there are countries and domestic agencies whose costs are anywhere in between. Adopting from Liberia is $5,000 per child and that is one of the cheapest foreign countries from which to adopt.Keep in mind that there is VERY rarely black and white anything. Like I said in my original post, get in with a really good agency and that makes all the difference. Your case worker can help evaluate you on a truly individual basis and it is difficult to get an accurate picture of your eligibility and option by looking at an agencies webpage or googling adoption. Our church has an adoption ministry that helps connect families in all stages of adoption (considering, going through, finalized) with one another for support and information. After talking with families that have gone through the adoption process several times or more, the concensus is that real flesh and blood people are the best possible resource for anyone interested or going through the process. Though all adoptions (like each child adopted) are unique, there are common threads that run through them all. I have a sheet of "scholarship" type resources that I'm happy to email to anyone who is interested. I am working on an adoption section to be added to my website (<A href="http://www.geocities.com/MurrensNatureMama">www.geocities.com/MurrensNatureMama</A>) hopefully by the end of the year. I'll keep you all posted on that.
