New Here - Ques. about adopting w/ student loan debt

Love4Science

I've been lurking for a while now and I love the generally positive, supportive vibe that runs through this board!

DH and I are reaching the end of our infertility journey (IVF is not the right choice for us and IUI is something we're still on the fence about, so our options are limited) and we've been discussing adoption for a few months now.  Even before we got married 6 years ago, we knew it was something we would probably do to grow our family, we just thought we'd try out the "biological" method of family growing first.  Turns out, pregnancy is probably not in our cards, and really, we're just more excited by the thought of being parents, not necessarily being pregnant.

However, there is one thing that may throw a wrench into our adoption plans.  DH is a doctor, and because of this, we have student loan debt in the low 6 figures due to medical school (almost 5 figures!  We're so close!).  He has 2 more years of residency, after which the student loans should be paid off reasonably quickly.  We're taking a long view of the adoption process, knowing that we won't contact an agency until at least after the holidays and probably won't be done with paperwork/homestudy/etc. for another year after that, at which point DH will be almost done.  However, the loans will still be there in eye-popping amounts, even though we're paying a lot on them now, and we're afraid that agencies will just look at us and laugh.  

Between my teacher salary and his resident salary (he makes a little more than me), we make enough to support a child day-to-day, but med student loans just take a while to pay down.  They're just a fact of life in his line of work and we never considered them a huge hindrance (more of an annoying money-suck) until we started to consider adoption.  Anyone have any insight into how adoption agencies look at student loans?  FWIW, our only other debt is our mortgage.

TIA for any advice!

IdigDirt

Welcome! I am going the foster to adopt route and still in the very early stages so I have no advice but just wanted to say hi and welcome from another (science loving) newbie.

maryoosa

Hi. I have MASSIVE student loan debt (I'm a PhD in the liberal arts)- and though I bring in a good salary and my partner is a teacher, we still have significant student loan debt- however, it's the ONLY debt we have. Our Social worker said it wasn't a problem at all and that she would write it up to explain that it's debt incurred for the expense of education-and not because of mismanagement of funds etc.

We brought home a baby boy on Monday last week (still have to wait for full TPR to happen but...)

rssullivan

I agree, I don't think it will be a problem.  They just want to know you are able to pay your bills every month. 

Kirstybaby

With ours they definitely took all of our debt into account (my hubby's student loans, the remainder of our car payments, and our mortgage).  They understood about the reason for the debt and that it was "good debt," but they did take it to account when figuring out our monthly income. 

Dr.Loretta

IMO your best idea is to contact some places when you're ready and flat-out ask them if it will be an issue. As the pps have noted, if you are able to make the payments and still show a reasonable debt:income ratio this shouldn't be an issue.

GL and welcome!

kva11isho

Hi there!  My husband and I are in a similar boat - both paid our own way (through student loans and grants) to private colleges.  He's a design engineer, I'm an administrative assistant (no luck finding work in my field - media and mass communication).  We have massive student debt, but other than filling out a questionnaire about our debt to income ratio I don't even remember discussing it with our social worker.  As long as you can cover your living expenses, you should be fine.

Good luck!

lafayettegirl

Like other posters have indicated, student loan debt is usually not a problem. It is looked at as "good" debt - the kind that puts you in a better position financially than you would have been in otherwise (that is, when the economy isn't in the tank).

As long as you are not behind, you can cover your living expenses, and can generally afford the addition of an extra person in the family, you should be fine.

Good luck!!!