A question I have often gotten is how we manage to afford to adopt again and again. I shared our story elsewhere, but in this post I wanted to explain more about the timing of the various fees associated with adoption.

When people hear that all our adoptions have cost in the range of $15,000+ they are usually shocked. That's a big chunk of change. What many people don't understand is that you don't have to dump all your pennies out on the counter at once.

Now keep in mind that different agencies have different fees and probably different expectations for the timing of fee payment. So what I am about to describe to you may not be exactly how your agency will do it. But here's how it worked for us with our Ethiopian adoptions.

The very first fees we paid were for our homestudy($1000), birth certificates ($12 each), and immigration paperwork($545 plus a $70 per person fingerprinting fee).

Most homestudies take 1-3 months. Once your homestudy is done (or maybe concurrent with your homestudy) you can begin preparing your dossier. Our dossier prep fee was around $2000. Most people take a month or more to complete their dossier, though it is possible to do it quicker!

Once your dossier is complete, the official wait for a referral begins. Depending on the type of child you are requesting, the wait ranges from 1-8 months, with the longest waits generally being for infant girls.

At the time of referral is when our agency charges the first half of the Ethiopia fee ($4000 in our case). There's a 1-3 month wait for your case to go to court. Once you get through court, travel is scheduled, and that is when the second half of the Ethiopia fee is due ($4000).

The last big expense in the process is the escort fee ($2500) or plane tickets ($1500-$2000 per ticket). Again, please keep in mind that things vary from agency to agency, and these are 2005 prices I'm quoting you.

But this gives you an idea how the expenses are divided up, leaving you some time to come up with the money. We have been amazed at how well it all works out each time we've decided to do it.