Two weeks ago, I was having some difficulty digesting everything with IVF and adoption. I had spoken with an America World representative and had been left with a lot of answers as well as a lot concerns primarily as it related to moving forward with transfers and adoption at the same time. However, earlier this week, JB spoke with her again, and we managed to get some concrete answers as to how this all works.
So here's the plan:
We plan to do our transfer on May 31st. At that point, we will wait two weeks to see if we are pregnant or not. If we are pregnant, we will put the adoption process on hold. If we are not pregnant, we can start moving forward with adoption while making decisions about when to go back for our remaining sticky babies.
The one cost that is not reimbursable is the cost of a "Home Study". This is basically a social worker who visits your home and creates a report to say whether or not you would make a good family for a child. This home study is only good for one year. We would have to do another study each and every time we adopt. Unfortunately, home studies are about $2,000, and this money is never reimbursable. Once a year runs out, you have to do it again.
However, all money that we pay to America World, while not reimbursable, can be rolled over to a subsequent adoption (minus 20%). We basically make three payments to America World. At any point, if we were to get pregnant and have to "back out", we would roll that into an "account" at America World that we could use the next time we try to adopt. This was very good news to me!
The other bit of good news is that while there are some small costs involved throughout the process that we would lose if we had to "pause", the bulk of the money due to China and for our travel to China, would be due very late in the process (approximately three months before we bring home our daughter). During that time, there would be no "turning back". For one thing, it is only when a pregnancy is considered "viable" (past the risk of miscarrying point) that you have to postpone an adoption so we would good to go by then.
Anyways, I know not everything should center around money, however, when you are talking about such large amounts of money, it is difficult to not get yourself in a tizzy about it. I write this post to basically say that while we definitely could lose money if we start the adoption process and THEN get pregnant, I don't think we would care much -- not only because we won't lose all our money but because we'd be pregnant for crying out loud.
So we feel very good about all of this. We have also created a rough outline for our moving to Florida/transferring etc. Here it is:
March 25-May 5 Nigeria/South Africa
May 5 Return from Nigeria
May 19 JB graduates
May 25 weekend JB and Ronnie (hopefully) drive all our stuff to Eglin and then fly back up here
May 31 Transfer
June 2 Wendi and JB fly to Eglin for good
Mid-June Pregnancy test
Mid-June Decide whether to proceed with adoption or transfers or what
Hope you all enjoyed that. Hey, if you are going to read a "planner's" blog, you have to expect to get some plans given to you.
3 comments:
What's so exciting is that you're prepared for whatever God has in store for you - sticky babies or a gorgeous daughter from China or BOTH! How can you go wrong? Perhaps the timeline may need to be adjusted here or there to align with the Lord's, but even in that, how can you go wrong?
I'm very excited for you and I haven't even met you. :-) Silly I know.
How's the Ambien working out?
Have them read your blog from beginning to end. They would learn more about you reading that then they would with a $2000 Home Study!
Linda
Hi,
Just happened upon your blog. :) I just wanted to say that homestudies don't have to cost $2000 so definately shop around. Also once you have the 1st one, all you would really need after the year is up is an updated one. Look for an agency that might not charge the whole homestudy fee for an update so that down the road if it does expire you might be able to get the next one at a lower cost. Our homestudy was $800 and then when we adopted again it was around $400 because so much of it was written already it just needed to be updated with the changes we made over the prior 3 years. :) So definately as you look for someone to do your homestudy find out what they charge for an update as it's possible your adoption won't be completed in a years time. Good luck to you! As a mother to both a biological child and three adopted children I know that whatever road God choses for you are soon to be incredibly blessed!
Sarah
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