ran into a possible road block

smithpaint

DH and I were hoping to adopt a child from Russia.  Talked to our agency.  I asked her what was considered financially stable.  She said to figure 10,000 per person including the child you would be adopting.  Which would mean we need to make 80,000 per year.  My husband is self employed and has lots of write offs that a typical person doesn't get (vehicle expenses being the biggest one).  We are in the 55-65 range per year after all of that. 

I found online that most areas in Russia expect an income of 60,000 which would be great.  The net worth thing also makes me nervous because our house has dropped in value 40,000 in the past 4 years.  I am hoping that the house market has hit bottom and is going to be pick back up so that we have more net worth. 

So I am trying to be hopeful and keep on saving and researching, but I really hope our income doesn't stop us from adopting.  Our kids are fed, our bills are paid.  We have everything we need and would provide for any child that we adopt and give them a great life.  I hate money right now!

ellekae

Oye, I am right there with you with China's net worth requirement. Sucks. We're going to be saving and paying off debt for 2-5 years so we can bring our child home. It is SO hard to be patient! I hate money.

DaisyZH

The money part is so frustrating!  We are going to be meeting with an agency in the next few weeks and almost all of our questions are financial.  We are interested in Hong Kong and their requirements are 110% over the poverty level (which is no problem) and it mentions they look for $30,000 for a family of 3.  With our adopted child we would be a family of 4 and we are within hundreds of dollars to having an annual income of $40,000 it's just not quite there.  I don't know if they care though as it only mentions the $30,000 figure.  I have no clue what they need for a net worth, we don't really have any debt but we don't really have a lot of assets either.

I'm right there with you, I hope that you guys have no problem moving forward.  I hate money right now too lol!

jillianmb

In our region the number is $60,000 too.  Without our life insurance out net worth is measly.  DH and I both have our master's so we did not start fulltime jobs until a year ago!  I was so worried about the finances too b/c our taxes from last year don't even meet the $60,000 number.  We have a little student debt left, our mortgage (and we still owe over 80% on it), and when we started we didn't have our car paid off, although we do now.  Here's how we proved that we could afford it:

- In our homestudy our CW wrote, "The Burdens have budgeted carefully and are able to afford this adoption."

- We just had our employers (well, I'm self employed so I got my accountant to write mine) write our employment letters with current income (greater than last year's 1040 income)

- We always declared our bank statement #s from our homestudy.  This is what your agency will tell you to do so all the paperwork is consistent, which is nice b/c we certainly had bigger bank statements before we paid for all our adoption and travel costs! 

Basically what I'm trying to say is don't give up yet!  If we could do it there is hope for you too.