Sometimes, grants and fundraising just aren’t quite enough. Adoption is expensive, considering all the legal fees, translation fees, travel expenses, agency costs, home study fees, updates, governmental approval, fingerprinting, court costs, even fire extinguishers, and (what feels like) your left arm to pay for postage. But none of that is worth your weight in worry when you have a child waiting for you, whether they live down the street or across the world. If ends still aren’t meeting and fee deadlines keep coming, there are adoption loans available to parents to help ease the burden during the “wait.”
In order to apply for an adoption loan, you need to first find a reputable organization. Talking to your agency, or other seasoned adoptive families, can help you narrow down your search while avoiding scams. Each organization will have its own requirements and restrictions (some are only for couples adopting, some are geared toward older child adoptions, some are for those with excellent credit, while others are available to people with average credit, etc.), so make sure to do your research. You’ll have to find the one that fits your needs best, while you fit theirs. Some of these adoption loans are “interest-free,” so adoptive parents can meet financial deadlines without racking up additional debt while they borrow. If you don’t qualify for an interest-free loan, or it doesn’t fit your needs well, you can definitely consider an alternative loan method, like an unsecured personal loan or credit card. Just know there are options.
You may need to have completed a home study before applying for a loan, and you may need to apply before a child is placed in your home. Apply during your wait time sweet spot, and apply with the knowledge that you will need to repay your loan. Will you be using your adoption tax credit to repay, or can you pay monthly? Do you need a loan for the duration of your adoption wait, or do you just need it for a particular fee/payment? Can you front the cost for the home study, or do you need assistance to make it through that first step? These questions will really help narrow down when you need to apply.
When applying for a loan, you will need to prepare and ready much of your financial information. Once you have done that for one loan, keep that information organized so that it is much easier to apply for the next. Many loan applications ask similar questions, so it’s helpful to keep your answers saved from one to help you eliminate application time on the other. Anything to help curb the time you spend on paperwork is a must-have.
Once you have found the right organization for you, determined when you need to apply, and readied your financial information, download the application and get to work. It’s not a quick process, and you won’t finish in a day. But, if a loan is what stands between you and your child, fill that baby out.
