Continued…
Adoption agency- As far as adoption agency fees go, this is where the big money comes in. Most of the agencies have fairly similar fees for the same programs, but again, do your homework. In the Ethiopia program I know for sure that there is close to a $5000 difference between the most expensive agency and the least expensive. That’s a lot of money!
Again, I would never choose an agency based only on fees, but it should be part of your research. Ask for a detailed breakdown of what is due when and where it goes (make sure you are getting the TOTAL fees that will be due). Use the fee info along with the rest of the info you collect to find the right agency for you.
Now special needs adoption is not right for every family, but I can say that we have paid much less than normal for several of our adoptions because we adopted special needs children. Some programs are more flexible and giving for special needs kids than others. Special needs could be a child with a health concern, an older child, a sibling group or any other child who is “harder to place” for some reason. You would be surprised how minimal some of the “special needs” are.
For example, when we adopted our daughter from Korea, typical Korean fees were about $12,000. Our total fees paid were $4,500 (plus homestudy, USCIS, travel, etc.) And while she did have a few medical concerns, she is a perfectly healthy and happy little girl. AAI gave us a $3000 grant for Belane’s adoption, and the fees were very minimal for our older girls, adopted domestically.
Paperwork- To save money on your dossier, find a notary that doesn’t charge you! The notary charges can really add up if you have to pay per document. Lots of places have notaries that won’t charge you though. Ask around.
Ordering multiple copies of things will also save you time and money. For example, if you need a copy of your birth certificate for your homestudy, find out how many copies you also will need for immigration (I think they still take a copy however) and your dossier. Ordering them all at once saves you some money in shipping and charges.
Sending things priority mail instead of Fedex will save you some money too. Just make sure that for the really important stuff (all of it!) you have a way to track it or get a delivery confirmation.
Travel- Find a good travel agent. A good travel agent will save you money and aggravation by arranging your travel. Many of the good travel agents have relationships with airlines, etc. that give you discounted fares, little or no penalties for changes, etc. Those savings really add up.
Where you stay will also affect your budget quite a bit. Staying at an agency’s guest house will usually be cheaper than a hotel. Small, local hotels will be cheaper than larger “chains” like the Hilton. Make a list of what you “must” have in a place to stay, and what is negotiable…compare rates…make an educated decision.
Also falling into the “travel” category would be vaccinations, which often turn out to be a huge expense for a lot of traveling adoptive parents. Find out what you REALLY need…the first list we got of “recommended vaccines” had quite a few that we didn’t really need for just hanging out in Addis Ababa. Find out what your insurance company will and will not pay for. Also shop around again as to where you can get them… public health offices are typically cheaper than specialized travel clinics.
Other random things…
-Don’t let the stress of waiting turn you into a shop-a-holic! (it does…trust me!)
-Add your child to your insurance policy ASAP. Most insurance policies now want the child added within 30 days of the adoption or date of placement, which for many adoptions is the court date in country. For Ethiopia, this means the kids get added to the insurance policies before they are even home. It is very nice to bring your child home and already have them insured for the first few doctor appointments, instead of having to pay for them and then try to get insurance to reimburse you.
-Don’t go nuts on buying clothes…it is really hard to “guess” what size your new child will wear, and you don’t want to end up with a bunch of stuff that doesn’t fit. Also, newly adopted kids typically grow a lot in the first year (even our kids adopted domestically did!) so they will likely outgrow things quickly.
That is all I can think of at the moment. If any of you have advice to share, please do!
Also, check out these posts that I did on financing adoptions (they have info on grants, loans and fundraising ideas…they were a TON of work to write so read them!) 
We have used a combo of grants, loans and fundraising for all of our adoptions pretty successfully.
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/how-to-fund-your-adoption
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-grants
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-grants-part-two
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/more-adoption-grant-resources
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-loans-part-one
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-loans-part-two
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-fundraising-part-one
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/adoption-fundraising-part-two
Great advice.
Most banks have a notary on staff and will do it for free if you have an account there. If your bank doesn’t do that, open an new account!!! It will be cheaper than the notary fees. We did our house papers and the adoption papers at the same time. It took 45 minutes, but we didn’t pay a penny!
Independent international adoption is also an option in some countries – I like it, I recommend it, but it’s not for the faint-of-heart!
Holly, adopted 6 independently so far, working on up to 4 more