If you follow me over on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed that we have hit some major adoption milestones.
If you’re not sure what milestones there are for adoption or are unsure of some of the words I’m throwing around, please refer to my Adoption 101 post.
We got our completed home study on Monday this week…that alone was HUGE! During the time it took to write it up (a couple of weeks) I was finalizing all of our dossier documents, so that as soon as we got our home study we could drop our I-600a packet in the mail (the USA’s ok to adopt and within what parameters), get all our dossier documents apostilled, and submit our dossier.
As of yesterday afternoon, all of those things have been done. Which is a HUGE deal. There will be celebrating and champagne this weekend.
They say the paper chase for adoption takes about 4-6 months. We got it done in three.
Part of this is me literally making adoption my job and working my rear end off. Part of it’s having a supportive husband who also worked his tail off and showed up at every fingerprinting and background check I needed him to be at, often rearranging a hectic schedule to do so. Part of it is due to the people who have fought so hard to implement processes and relationships with Kyrgyzstan. There are families that waited over 6 years to get their kiddos from our country, I know much of our success comes at their sacrifice. But all of it, is by the grace of God!
So we are in transition. From the paper chase phase, to the waiting phase. We are waiting both on our immigration approval (to send over to Kyrgyzstan…this originally is included in our dossier, but thankfully we were able to submit dossier without it), and a referral. A referral is our girl. This typically takes 2 months, but due to not having USCIS approval yet, it may take longer. So we wait.
While we wait we are doing lots of research. International adoption doctors, occupational therapists, and adoption specialists in the area. Tests, and titers to check, and medical issues that are looming. Play therapy for kids that suffer from SPD (sensory processing disorder) and possibly RAD (reactive attachment disorder). Travel…best airlines, places to stay and eat, what to bring and do. Best ways to documents my daughters beginnings and origin with limited resources and time. Making a photo book to leave her. Maybe redoing a room. Applying for grants and interest free loans, etc, etc, etc.
When our dossier is received there’s another large chunk of money due. I feel like it’s not really fair to ask for financial support in this, if we aren’t being open with where we are at financially.
So our approximate adoption cost is about $50,000.
So far we’ve paid over $5,000 out to the adoption, out of pocket.
Once our dossier is received (tomorrow), we owe about $10,000. We have been given about $1,000 in our pure charity account, which has been transferred over to go towards this. We raised just over $500 through an Instagram sale we did, and along with some cupcake sales, we were able to almost completely cover our I-600a application fee ($890) which was sent out this week.
So, we have paid $5,000 ourselves towards the adoption, and we owe $9,000 as of this weekend (which we are planning on paying for out of pocket). About $2,000 of financial support has been given.
In about 2-3 months we will get a referral. When our referral is accepted, we will have another $11,000 fee.
About 2 months after that payment, we travel. Our travel expenses, and finalizing adoption fees over the course of several months and three required trips will be approximately $18,000 (a lot more if we decide to take kids).
So if you’re quick with math, we have just under $40,000 to pay out in about 6 months. On top of the $5,000 we’ve already paid, and the $9,000 we will pay this week, we will be able to cover a portion of our $11,000 referral fee, but after that we will have drained our personal resources to pay for the adoption.
We are applying for grants, and interest free adoption loans. We are brainstorming fundraising ideas. We are researching other loans and options. But basically, there’s no easy way to pay out about $50,000 in year without help, debt or loans.
When we applied to China, the process would have taken 3 years. Three years is a much more manageable time with which to raise support and pay out that kind of money. However, going from a three year process to a one year process in a month is revealing it’s challenges.
I’m trying not to freak out, trusting that God has got this. He directed us to Kyrgyzstan and He’s got it all figured out. It’s just that right now, we don’t. And when you’ve got $11,000, and $18,000 payments looming, it can be hard not to panic when there’s not a plan.
So that’s where we are. We jumped a huge hurdle, but there’s a whole bunch to go. While we are excited we passed that one, if we stop to look back at it too long, it’ll make us fall over the next one. So we keep running the race.