financing private adoption

[mumquest]

My wife and I have always wanted to adopt, and even before we met, we both imagined having foster children and adopting through the state.  This is still a dream for our family, and we plan to pursue this route in the next few years. 

But for our first child, we feel strongly that we cannot take on the legal risk, and possible loss, of adopting through social services.  Which leaves us with few options aside from private adoption. 

We are both educators and our finances are limited, so we are feeling rather stuck about how to proceed.  We don't need a "healthy, white baby", just our baby.  But regardless of our willingness (and desire, frankly) to be flexible about our baby's health history and race, we still need lots and lots of money.

We are excited to take advantage of the federal adoption tax credit, but that is not available until after, so we need money upfront.  Any suggestions on resources for alternative families or other adoption grants/funds?  We are lucky enough to have some family that can help us out a bit, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the overall costs. 

Thanks for any advice!

[SundayCrepes]

We refinanced our house and took out extra money. When we got the funds back from the adoption credit, we sent the money to our mortgage company.

[lamamax3]

We're using a non-profit agency for a private adoption.  We are open on race, so we were placed in the minority program.  The fees are based on a sliding scale with your income, so our fees are low.  We paid for the home study in two payments.  My mother-in-law has generously offered to lend us the placement fees when we adopt, and we will give her back the money when we get the tax return :)

Good luck with everything on your adoption journey!!!

[Polliwog]

Just know that the refundable adoption credit is only for adoptions finalized in 2011 or earlier. And the non-refundable credit is supposed to drop back to $5,000 (or $6,000) in 2013. My figures and timeline may be off but it would be wise to do your homework before counting on the ATC. I would be HIGHLY suprised if the ATC remained refundable after this year.

[excitedtobeamom]

Really look around!  We went through a non-profit that based fees on your adusted gross income.  They were fabulous and very reasonable compared to anywhere else we called.  I could not go with an agency that based fees on race-yuck!