First, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far in the adoption process. We love the support and feedback we have been receiving. Some people are astonished and have voiced skepticism over the astounding costs of adoption. We welcome your encouragement as well as your doubts. We hope to fill in the missing links. Part of our goal of going so public with the adoption process is to help others understand it. We love to listen to whatever you have to say.

Based on our research, the main reason costs are so high is because of something called the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention is an international agreement among countries to set standards and abide by those standards for all international adoptions. The Convention’s purpose was established to help prevent the “abduction, sale of, or trafficking in children, and it works to ensure that intercountry adoptions are in the best interests of children” (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/Adoption-Process/understanding-the-hague-convention.html) This has required participating countries to set up agencies with employees to enforce these standards. This all costs money.

The Hague Convention is a double edged sword. On one side, it’s streamlining the adoption process on a global scale, which helps promote ethical practices. On the other side, involving bureaucratic policies and procedures drastically raised costs and lengthened processing time. It will take about two years for us to bring home our child. We will most likely be matched with our son or daughter (most likely son) a few months after Korea receives our dossier, but we will not be able to hold our child in our hands for another year. So someone has to take care of our child until all paperwork is completed. Any parent knows raising children is expensive. Government agencies have to foot the bill on our behalf until we officially call this child our own.  Actually, according to the National Council for Adoption (2018), 43 % of agencies adhering to the Hague Convention agreement have reported a loss of revenue in the last two years. No one is lining their pockets with extra cash. The money goes to processing, translating, and approving the paperwork on both sides of the ocean and caring for the children in a healthy environment. If anyone wants further information, I can provide the information we have been given.

But back to adoption costs. There are cheaper options out there. The cheapest of course would be to have our own child. But then, how do we forget there is a child out there who almost had a family? We could also adopt domestically through the foster care system. But the purpose of the U.S. foster care system is to make families whole again. We are looking to complete our family. We don’t qualify for domestic adoption because we need to have documented infertility, and even then, the wait time is long and the costs are still significant.

International adoption is not the cheapest option. However we feel God has placed Korea on our hearts. We believe when God calls you to do something, it is best to respond. Kelly’s income from online teaching will help. Stephen will give all his proceeds from his tax business next tax season. We will apply for any and every grant available when the time comes. We have to wait on this for timing reasons, which we can explain in another post.

The amount of money involved and the shortness of time creates a desperation in our hearts. We are working hard to reach our goal; if you would like to help us, any amount would help. Again, we are so grateful for the support everyone has already shown us! It is so encouraging to see already how our village is circling around us. Thank you, thank you!