65% off Delta!!!!!

I decided to call Delta Airlines to find out if they offered any discounts for those that have to travel for an international adoption. Well.....they do!! 65% off!! This is definitely a HUGE savings considering we will have to travel to Ethiopia at least twice. With this discount, it will allow us to make an additional trip or two so that we can start bonding with the child (once the child has been identified). Delta is also my preferred airline, so I will be able to rack up a lot of miles with them during this time. Thanks Delta!!

Fingerprinting Friday!

Happy Friday!  Dion and I were able to get our fingerprints completed today!  All we have left is our physical and we will be 100% complete with our home study packet!  So what happens after that?  Glad you asked....We will be assigned a social worker and she will schedule our first official in home, home study.  She will meet with us for a few hours during the initial visit to learn more about us and our family.  This is must be done before we can receive a referral for a child.  The home study can sometimes take up to 3 months to complete, but we are believing God that ours will happen much faster!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!


XOXO

First home study appointment!

Who knew that there would be a lot more paperwork to fill out?  We certainly didn't, LOL.  We just had our first home study visit and we now have to fill out about 50 more forms as well as have our fingerprints taken.  This appointment wasn't technically our actual home study appointment.  It was to meet with the agency that will be completing our home study.  We are both schedule to be fingerprinted on Friday.  Once we complete that task and the paperwork, we will then be scheduled for our first home study visit.  We can hardly wait!  Each and every form we complete, brings us one step closer to bringing home our son or daughter so it is well worth all of the paperwork.  ;-)

Another day....another step!

We have completed just about 75% of all of our initial paperwork!  Tomorrow we have our appointment for our home study, and we are excited to start that phase of our journey.  Radu with Adoption Avenues has been extremely helpful with answering our questions and providing us with additional information.  We are glad that we made the decision to go with him.  We are looking forward to working with him.  

How much does it cost?

This is a question that comes up almost immediately after I tell someone that we are adopting.  Adoption is expenses, and it will vary from country to country.  Ethiopia is not as expensive as other countries, such as China.  There are different agencies that charge different fees, although you are adopting from the same country.  Thankfully, my sister Adrienne had already done thorough research about the adoption process over the last few years in preparation for her adoption process.  She was able to provide me with a lot of information as well as a contact for an agency that has a lot of connections and contacts in Ethiopia.  His fees were also cheaper than every other agency that I had considered!  He is well respected by all of the families that have used his service.

So how much does adoption cost?  Here is the breakdown.

Agency Fee-$4450
Home Study Fee-$2700
Home Study Post Placement Fee-$800
Foreign Processing Fee-$9000
US Immigrant Visa for Child-$380
Notary & Document Authentication-$200

Total-$17,530 (does not include travel accommodations to Ethiopia. Two trips required)

As you can see, adoption is expensive, but there are programs that offer grants if you qualify.  Although it is expensive, the ability and opportunity to give a child a better life is priceless! 

Every journey starts with a single step...

What was once a topic of conversation has now transpired into an action, the first step in our journey.  Adoption had been a topic of discussion that my husband and I would casually discuss, but never really made any commitments or decisions until 9/11/12.  It was on this day that we would make the decision to adopt a child from Ethiopia.  The purpose of this blog is to journal our experience, provide insight to those considering adoption and to hopefully raise awareness for the need of adoptive parents.