For those who have adopted through an adoption agency?

Our adoption was private and not anything near 30K. But to answer your question, yes. I have itemized bills from each party that facilitated our adoption. Attorneys , licensed social workers, counselors, etc. All are itemized with descriptions, time spent, and hourly rates. And although we did pick up the tab for the natural mother's separate attorney and counselors, the choice of the professional was entirely decided by her. The expenses were paid throughout the process as the services occurred, so there was no final, or total bill that said "price for a newborn = $$$$$.

eta:The adoption costs are *solely* made up of professional fees of those professionals mentioned for their services paid individually to them. Each bill is itemized for their services rendered for that month, or whatever their normal billing cycle is. There's no black hole as to where the money went and what it was for. And yes, if you add it all up there is a total cost. It would be impossible for me to go dig it all out and share it here on Y!A . Again, this was a private adoption.... I'm not sure if this is how any agency would handle it though. I hope I answered your question.

eta: if you've ever had counselling or hired an attorney the bill would look the same. If an attorney makes a phone call, files a document, or whatever, it's detailed on the bill as to time spent and rate applied. There's nothing voodoo about it just because it's adoption and no different than services provided for any other legal matter.

My adoptive parents received an invoice when they adopted me through the Department of Community Services here in Australia.....it too was itemised, pretty simple too. It only contained one "item" Court processing costs: $176.

Adoption shouldnt be expensive, it should be rare, and no one should be able to profit from it. Child welfare should always be the duty of EVERYONE and be paid for out of taxes, both state and federal. I dont care how well you try to justify it, if youre paying a lot of money to "facillitate" an adoption then you are in fact buying a baby.

I went through a non profit and no when we paid the fee it was not itemized nor was it 30,000. It was under 12.

The money went to house and feed the girls and the children, even if the changed their mind and keep the babies. The money went to pay for hospital and Doctor care. The money went to pay court cost, lawyer fees, social worker fees and employees of the agency that might transport the ladies to the Dr, school or grocery store. They help the girls after the birth of the babies weather they give them up or not. If they do, they help them with counseling, going to school, finding a job ect. If they don't give up, the help them find the help they need to parent the children. Non profit means they keep the cost as low as possible and when adoption fees may go up because the adoption tax credits go up, they do not.

Yes we did receive an itemized invoice with the largest portion (more than half) of that actually going to the agency in the country we adopted from. The bulk of that cost went to ensure our son received proper health care and to pay the foster mother. The remaining costs went towards court costs, agency time and proper paperwork documentation.

Including our travel expenses we spent around $20,000.

Our adoption was initially going to be through an agency, whose fees were around the $18,000 mark. They didn't offer us an itemized agenda of what items the money would have been allocated to.

The adoption for our daughter was done privately and we paid $9000 in total. I can't remember the itemization but it was paid in smaller amounts here and there towards our home study, attorney and court fees.

We adopted two older children from an orphanage going through an agency. It did not cost us anywhere near $30,000. In fact, we paid more money to Delta Airlines than we did to the adoption agency.

But to answer your very baited question, yes. We did receive an itemized explanation of what fees were charged and why they were charged by the adoption agency. Most of the money paid to the agency went to the home country: court costs, investigations (yes, the government independently investigates every adoption to ensure that there was no child-stealing involved), the medical examinations (required) and support of the children while we were in-process. The adoption agency claimed only a very small amount of the fees for their overhead costs.

Of course, one of the reasons we chose this particular agency was that they did not charge thousands and thousands of dollars for "agency fees" and were extremely upfront with their financial statements and tax records.

There were also costs that went on the US side: fingerprint clearance, post-placement reports, exit visas, re-adoption (required) and the application for the certificate of citizenship. These, along with the home-study portion and the travel expenses, were not paid to the agency and so were not itemized on a statement.

ETA: Oh, forgot to add the expenses of staying in-country for three weeks. Unless you want to run the risk of getting parasites, you go to the places where the UN people go and pay American prices for your food

ETA2: OKay, then I apologize. When I see "receipts" being used along with a bunch of recent questions about "buying" children, this sounds a little like a setup. Our agency charged us, if I recall correctly, around $6K for adopting two children. The agency itself kept about $500 or so for their agency fees. The rest went to the process in-country as described above. Travel expenses, pre- and post- adoption expenses were separate. Our home-study agency was separate from the adoption agency, so that was a different entity.

I hope that answers your question.

great question! when you get a REAL answer, email me...

but somehow i doubt you will. just a bunch of rationalizing, to anesthetize the reality that they paid for someone's new mercedes cloaked as "loving."

Umm..yes..when we adopted, we received an itemised invoice that included examination and shots, along with other documentation like available history. It was all above board and ethical and legal.

Oh wait, do cats count?