Banking on international adoption: More affordable than it seems
by Sandra E. Martin

National Post (Canada)
May 29, 2004 Saturday National Edition

When blond Deana Wilson goes out with her two dark-haired daughters,
Tia, 6, and Tessa, 21 months, they attract a certain amount of
attention. Much of it is admiring; some of it is annoying.

Upon learning that Ms. Wilson’s children were both adopted from China
— Tia in 1998 and Tessa last July — curious strangers often comment:
“Oh, my God, that must have been so expensive!”

Her response is swift and pithy: “I’m thinking, you know what? So’s
your car. How do you put a price on a baby?

“Ever since we got Tia — I’m always blown away by how much I love
her. And now Tessa, too.”

For Ms. Wilson, her husband, Jeff, and the approximately 20,000 other
Canadian families who’ve adopted children from abroad over the past
decade, the financial outlay involved — which, depending on the
country, can top $30,000 — is the best investment they ever made.

And to couples who are considering international adoption, but may
be intimidated by the cost, Ms. Wilson and others who’ve already
been through the process assure that it’s much more affordable than
it seems.

For starters, you don’t need to have the full amount up front.

“The thing that people don’t realize is it’s all done in stages. It’s
not like you go to an agency and hand them $20,000,” says Kathleen
Dennis of Toronto, who adopted a little girl from China’s Guangzhou
province last year.

Fellow Torontonian Ruth Hatch, who adopted a baby boy from Armenia in
2001, and has already started the process for a second adoption, agrees
the staggered payments take the shock out of the financial equation.

“It was split up in four chunks, which was pretty manageable,”
she recalls.

The process of international adoption begins with a home study, which
is performed by a social worker over the course of several months.
It’s mandatory and costs $900 to $1,800, depending on where you live.

The idea is to assess your suitability as an adoptive parent, check
out your home, and help you figure out which countries would be the
best fit.

Although Ms. Dennis and her husband, John Slama, had been considering
both Haiti and China, ultimately, the choice was clear.

“We just had a gut feeling about China. We felt an affinity, being in
downtown Toronto, having Chinese neighbours, being around Chinatown
a lot,” Ms. Dennis recalls.

Ms. Wilson, who lives west of Toronto in Burlington, Ont., says China
is also a good choice because the adoption process is well-established
and very smooth. “It’s a guaranteed thing,” is how she puts it.

In addition, Ms. Wilson had heard rumours about hidden fees for
adoptions in other countries, such as Guatemala (which is now closed
to international adoption), and didn’t want any surprises. “Nobody
was going to get us there and tell us we owed another four grand,”
she says.

China can also be more affordable than other countries, because
adoptive parents are allowed to bring their children home almost
immediately, keeping travel costs to a minimum.

Ms. Dennis and Mr. Slama saved even more money, thanks to the
generosity of well-travelled friends who “bought” their airfare to
China with spare Aeroplan points. The couple’s only travel expense
was $300 in ticket transfer fees. Return airfare for the two of them,
plus a one-way ticket to Canada for daughter Annie, would have cost
about $5,000.

But in the Ukraine, for instance, there’s a wait of up to six weeks
between your acceptance of a child, and when you can take him home.
Because both parents must appear in court initially, that generally
requires two return trips from Canada, potentially doubling the cost
of airfare and accommodations.

According to Darla Penner, executive director of Ukrainian Adoption
Services in Manitoba, some couples spare themselves the cost of a
second trip by arranging for one of them to stick around until the
adoption is finalized, while the other goes back to work. (Both
adoptive parents must be present initially.)

Occasionally, adoptive parents who are dealing with two-trip situations
catch a break from a compassionate judge who waives the waiting period.

That was the case with Amanda and Sean Moriarty, who got their
daughter, Maggie, from the Ukraine last September. From an emotional,
as well as a financial perspective, it was a good thing, too. Having
met Maggie, and visiting with her at the orphanage for two hours, twice
a day, Ms. Moriarty says, “There was no way I could leave her there.”

Many couples who pursue international adoptions have already either
looked into or tried fertility treatments, which can quickly eat up
tens of thousands of dollars — so they aren’t shocked by the cost
of adopting abroad.

To put the dollars and cents into perspective, a single in-vitro
fertilization attempt costs $6,500 to $8,000, including drugs. After
four failed attempts, you’ve already overshot most international
adoption budgets.

Ms. Wilson, who had tried different fertility drugs and a single
course of IVF before committing to the adoption process, says: “I
don’t agree with wasting all this money [on fertility treatments]. I
just want to be a mother, and I don’t care how I get there.”

She and her husband had saved some money before embarking on their
first adoption. But, like many parents who choose international
adoption, they looked to their bank for help.

“Financially, it’s been tough,” says Ms. Wilson, who is now working
part-time; her husband is a dispatch manager for a transportation
company. “We maxed everything out when we did the first adoption. We
maxed out the line of credit, we maxed out the credit card.”

Regardless of the expense, they had such a wonderful experience
raising Tia that they began to talk about returning to China —
if they were able to come up with the money.

Fate intervened. Jeff’s grandmother, with whom he was extremely close,
passed away. He was broken up by the loss, but also extremely grateful
for the fact that she had left him enough money to cover about half
the cost of a second adoption. “It was kind of helping to pay off
Tia’s adoption and a downpayment on the second one,” Ms. Wilson
says. For the remainder, they again drew on the equity in their home.

“If we didn’t go into debt over this,” she says frankly, “we would
have gone into debt over something else.”

According to Maria Racanelli, vice-president of personal and commercial
banking at BMO Bank of Montreal, the Wilsons’ financing strategy is
a sound one.

She says a line of credit, secured by a large asset such as your home,
offers the best rates and flexibility for people who are anticipating
a foreign adoption.

Because you only pay interest on the portion of your credit limit that
you’re currently using, a line of credit usually ends up costing less
to service than a loan, for which you pay interest on the full amount,
right from the start.

The Moriartys, who had managed to save $10,000, financed the remaining
$18,000 or so of their costs with a loan designed especially for
adoptive parents, from National Bank of Canada.

With a low, variable interest rate of prime plus 0.75%, and the option
of taking up to 15 years to repay, the loan is “very manageable,”
says Ms. Moriarty, whose monthly payments are in the neighborhood
of $220 — less than the cost of carrying a car loan. She and her
husband are also free to make extra payments whenever they choose,
allowing them to reduce the principal faster.

If you’re thinking about adopting internationally, talk to your
employer; some have begun to provide parental-leave top-ups similar
to those for biological parents. Bank of Montreal, for instance,
provides a small income during the two-week waiting period for
government benefits, then tops up those benefits for four weeks,
to a total of 95% of the employee’s gross weekly pay.

You might also consider writing a letter or two to the federal Finance
Committee, which is currently reviewing Bill C-246, a proposal for
income-tax deductions for adoption expenses of up to $7,000. After
dying several times in the past several years, the Bill was finally
passed by a 168 to 50 vote last month, but isn’t out of the woods yet.

Quebec residents can already avail themselves of a provincial tax
credit of up to $6,000 per child.

Not that the availability of tax credits and top-ups would have made
a whit of difference to any of these parents’ decision to adopt.

Kathleen Dennis still gets emotional when she thinks about how much
Annie has brought to her and her husband’s lives.

She recalls that while they were travelling with Annie in China, many
locals smiled at them, calling their new daughter a lucky baby. “We
would say, ‘we’re the lucky ones.'”

COST TIMELINE:

A chronological breakdown of major expenses:

– Home study: $900 to $1,800

– Agency fees, first instalment: $1,750 to $2,750

– Travel and accommodation: $5,000+

– Foreign/program fees: US$5,000 to US$15,000

– Orphanage donation: varies

– Agency fees, second instalment: $1,750 to $2,750

– Extras: $100 immigration fee; $250 post-adoption assessment; $925
fee for Ontario residents

– Total: $20,000 to $40,000

Sources: and Financial Post

GRAPHIC: Color Photo: Peter Redman, National Post; Deana and Jeff
Wilson with their daughters, Tessa, 21 months, and Tia, six years old,
at their Burlington, Ont. home.