Before we take a deep dive into me and my wife's finances, we received word from the social worker this week that our adoption application was received, and we will soon be getting an invitation to an adoption training.
To those who contributed to our Go Fund Me or purchased a t-shirt, a big thank you as those funds will cover a decent percentage of our training and home study fees, which will be due next month. If you are interested in helping in our adoption fund, please click one of the above links. The Go Fund Me will continue indefinitely, but we only have one more week of t-shirt sales (the company prints the shirts in batches).
Let's get down to brass tacks
Being in the media, I am a firm believer in transparency. While being a web editor does not mean I am on the front lines of investigative journalism, I support those who are on the front lines, allowing them to showcase their work.
Because so many people have offered their support, both financially and emotionally, Jenna and I wanted to be as transparent as possible to everyone on how we plan to pay for our adoption.
As mentioned in previous posts, the total cost of an adoption is roughly $30,000. Even if we continue to receive support through our fundraising efforts, we knew from the get-go that adopting would require a loan.
When paying to adoption, payments come in increments. It is sort of a pay-as-you-go situation. Our initial up-front fees are roughly $2,000 (which include the already paid for the adoption fee and the aforementioned training and home study costs). After that, it costs nearly $10,000 for the listing and $13,500 in for a match with birthparents. In addition there are medical costs and finalization fees that are an estimated $5,000 but varies by each individual adoption.
Rather than waiting until later this year or early next year to obtain a loan, we decided to apply for a loan now and put the money into a newly-created bank account until we were ready.
Que the sad trombone sound.
The banks said no. Student loans, credit cards that we ran up as students and several years of just trying to keep our heads above water made our credit score worse than what we thought. This was the first year in our lives that we haven't needed credit cards to ensure we had groceries. More on that below.
But for a brief moment, we thought we'll never be able to adopt. We'll never be parents. Woe is us. This is when the emotional support became valuable.
Jenna and I have recently joined several adoption groups on Facebook, and many people said the same thing: "Don't let finances stop you in the adoption process."
So not giving up, Jenna talked to a debt consolidator and explained our situation. We were then able to consolidate all of our credit cards (except for one that we're keeping for emergencies) into one, relatively low and reasonable monthly payment at a low-interest rate. By doing this, it decreases our debt-to-income ratio, reduces our overall amount of debt, which should cause our credit score to go up enough for us to be eligible for a massive adoption loan within six to nine months.
Glad we didn't give up.
Jenna's side job will ultimately make this adoption possible
As I type up this blog, Jenna is in what was our dining room teaching English to a 5-year-old boy in China. Late in 2017, she signed up to be a teacher for VIPKID. For the first few months, things started out slow.
In recent months, she will teach up to 30 lessons a week, which last for 25 minutes each.
This also means our dining room now is a virtual worldwide classroom. Technology is awesome!
Working for VIPKID has also given us what acts as an extra paycheck a month that we can use to pay off our massive student debt load, credit cards and save for adoption expenses.
As a husband, I am really appreciative of the effort Jenna puts forth. The summer is typically a time for teachers to relax. But as she starts putting together her plans for the upcoming school year for her American first graders, she continues to earn money, which is ultimately going to make this adoption possible.
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