What You Need to Know About Financial Assistance for Adopting From Foster Care
When my husband and I first considered adopting a child, we thought we had only two choices: private domestic adoption of an infant, and international adoption. Both options came with a hefty price tag. We had each started new careers; we had no expendable income, but we wanted to give a kid a great home. Then, our social worker told us we could adopt a child relinquished by birth parents to the state’s foster care system. The cost? Absolutely free.
Yet a majority of parents adopt privately or internationally—a process that can cost up to $50,000, considering that private-adoptive parents are paying for the birth mother’s medical care for nine months. So why aren’t they fostering to adopt instead? Most adoptive parents opt for private adoption simply because, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health, most foster kids have experienced significant trauma—including domestic violence and other types of physical and emotional abuse—and many have been born substance-addicted. Some adoptive parents worry that they won’t have the ability to handle the repercussions of this trauma, and they’d rather adopt a healthy infant from birth via private adoption. Then there’s the fact that few people realize just how many adoptable children and teens wait in foster care for permanent families—and that the process costs little to nothing.
Plus, in addition to adopting from foster care for free, adoptive parents can…
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