We're Formally Approved!

At last! Our formal application has been cleared, and we're now facing a MOUNTAIN of forms. In the last hour, I have poured over  Bethany's stance on corporal punishment, listed every penny of monthly expenses, and signed my name at least 20 times. If birth parents had to go through this much to have a child, I think the paperwork alone would serve as birth control.

Oh! Here's a question I can't answer: What are the anticipated costs for a child to be placed in your home? Think infant, and imagine that all our generous friends and family have donated all the furniture. How  much might we spend a month on a healthy infant? We're clueless.

The Financial Cost of Adoption

Anyone who has gone through the adoption process will say that's it's always nice to know what's coming. For couples starting the process, we thought you might want to know what expenses are like along the way. Here's where we are so far:
1. $100 preliminary application fee
2. $550 formal application fee
3. $50 criminal background checks
4. $170 expenses for day-long training (travel, hotel, food) in Asheville
5. $15 lead test kits
6. $100 doctor appointments
7. $200 counseling appointments
8. $100 travel and food for trips to Raleigh for Bethany meetings
9. $40 carbon monoxide detector
10. $20 fee for yard sale ad
11. $40 gas for travel to and from conference and misc. yard sale travel
$1385 as of 10/10/10
12. $70 family profile books and mailings to Bethany offices
13. $3100 home study


There are so many great resources out there to help with the cost, and creativity goes a long way. Friends of ours gave out baby bottles and asked friends to fill them with change. Another family asked for yard sale donations and put all the proceeds toward the cost.

A LONG Surgery

On Tuesday, March 2, Angie had a laproscopic myoectomy at NC Baptist Hospital. Surgeons removed two fibroid tumors, one of which was embedded deep in the wall of her uterus. What was expected to be a two-hour surgery took six hours, and the recovery room nurses had a hard time waking Angie up. Because of her sleep apnea, she would stop breathing, and nurses would have to wake her up to make her breathe. So an outpatient surgery became an overnight stay, and Angie came home Wednesday afternoon. She's been sleeping for three days and has been well cared for by Stan (who got a free snow day to stay home on Wednesday) and her parents (Mom stayed overnight in the hospital and has cooked up a storm. Dad plays cards with Angie when she can stay awake long enough to get through a hand.).

This surgery is supposed to make the uterus more hospitable for pregnancy, so this blog may do double duty one day. We want to be parents; however that happens is fine by us.