1. You’re comparing apples to oranges to cherries. Adopting through the foster care system and adopting a child internationally are two completely different things. Different costs, different process, very different. Adopting from Haiti and adopting from Ethiopia are also two very different things, with different costs and different processes.

2. The $500 cost you’re talking about is one step in a much larger, much more expensive process. That doesn’t include the agency fees, the lawyer fees if you don’t use an agency, the home study costs (which are more expensive for foster care because it’s more involved), etc. So don’t tell me you can adopt for $500.

3. “I just think you are woefully unaware of the discrepancy between what you are paying and whether or not it’s doing any good for children.” We’re talking about my situation of adopting from Ethiopia through my agency in this blog post–I can’t speak to the differences in somewhere like Haiti–and in my situation, I saw where my kid came from, I saw the level of care he received, I saw the schools and hospitals that my fees help support. The money was well-spent, going to good use and helping people.

Here’s an excerpt from a New York Times article that describes conditions in Haitian orphanages before the quake:

“The floors were concrete and the windows were broken.

There was no electricity or running water. Lunch looked like watery grits. Beds were fashioned from sheets of cardboard. And the only toilet did not work.

But the Foyer of Patience here is like hundreds of places that pass as orphanages for thousands of children in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Many are barely habitable, much less licensed. They have no means to provide real schooling or basic medical care, so children spend their days engaged in mindless activities, and many die from treatable illnesses.”

So, if this is how the kids were living, does it really take $15,000 to $30,000 to transfer parental rights so they can have a life?

I’m not trying to attack you, I just think you are woefully unaware of the discrepancy between what you are paying and whether or not it’s doing any good for children. Someone is most definitely getting rich off of adoption. Maybe you don’t mean for them to, but they are.

I’m not even hinting that you shouldn’t adopt anyway – the child is most definitely worth the effort, but denying the reality of what’s going on doesn’t help get the adoption system fixed. That’s why so many people are commenting here.

Link to the NYT article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35281005/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times

Gretchen, what makes you think I’m attacking you? I’m just trying to point out a flaw in your logic. Do you really think fees for non-white children are lower because the kids are less valued? Or is it because more people want white children? Agencies are just trying to deal with demand and get kids in homes. Maybe it’s not agencies that are being unequal, but parents. Like I’ve said, it’s not perfect.

I’m getting a little tired of having to defend how the adoption system works.

It’s not a perfect system, it’s not an ideal system, but it’s the system we have in place. Could it be improved? Yes, and I hope it is. Could it be made less expensive? Maybe, and I hope that happens. Is corruption a problem? Yes, and when it’s there it needs to be stamped out.

But there are very real, very sane reasons why adoption is so expensive. That’s all I’m trying to say here.

If you want to adopt you need to do your research into the costs and find out for yourself where the money is going. If you think it’s corruption is happening, you do the research.

I’m tired of people seeing the price tag and concluding that people are just getting rich off this. That may be true in rare instances of corruption, but I can say with near certainty that’s not the case for my agency and situation.

It takes $15k to $30k in American dollars (translated into a million dollars in Haitian money) to adopt a child who will STARVE TO DEATH if not adopted.

It is now after the earthquake and there are more orphans than ever – so more child deaths.

If the state (in the US) can perform adoptions at around $500 – and they have to perform the same checks on all parties that private agencies do – then why does it costs thousands more to do it privately? If children in third world countries are starving to death, why does it cost thousands of dollars in US currency to adopt them?

It costs around 10-30 grand to supply a child’s needs for a year once they’re in your house. I’m supposed to believe it costs the equivalent to run background checks so I can adopt one?

In general, I think one of the problems with adoption is when we think about the cost as the ‘price of the child’. Gretchen you asked what message they’re sending, but you could also ask what message are you hearing? If a lower price to encourage adoptions is seen as a ‘less expensive’ child, that could just as easily be you seeing a message that isn’t there.

All that to say, there’s a lot of controversy in adoption and none of it is straightforward or easy.

And frankly, we aren’t perfect people. There’s no way anyone is going to be able to set up a perfect system or make adoption cheap and affordable. I wish it weren’t that way, but that’s how it is. No matter how idealistic we want to be (and I’m pretty idealistic), it’s expensive to care for kids and protect their interests and protect birth families and make sure no one is being taken advantage of or abused.

The fact that kids need to be adopted in the first place is messed up. But sometimes life is messed up.