'Help Us Adopt' Connects Prospective Parents With Adoption Funds

After spending over $40,000 to adopt her first child, Becky Fawcett knew that other qualified families must be struggling to foot the cost to create a family.

"I sat there and thought if...I was told that I was not going to be a mother because I couldn't afford adoption, I don't even know what I would have done," said Fawcett, 40. "I don't know who I would have turned to for help. It just hit me. I knew how lucky we were."

So, she took action. In 2007, she founded Help Us Adopt, a nonprofit that issues financial assistance to families looking to adopt. Twice a year, her organization reviews applications and awards grants directly to the adoption facilities used by approved prospective parents.

At least 43 families have been approved for funds through Fawcett's organization, including single parents and at least one gay couple.

"We're helping all types of families," she told CNN. "We believe in family -- period. We believe in loving children -- period."

WATCH:

Adopting children from foster care can often be of low cost, but if parents are looking to adopt from an independent agency -- or from abroad -- the cost can quickly escalate into the tens of thousands of dollars per child.

There are some government programs available to help families overcome the costs of adoption. The IRS offers an income-based tax credit for qualifying families. Employers can also take advantage of federal programs to help their employees through the process and provide benefits.

And some adoption agencies cut costs when adopting out special needs children, which caused one family profiled by MSNBC to look into it. Steve Kishbaugh, who adopted two children with Down syndrome and one with muscular dystrophy, said:

"When we first decided to adopt, we didn't even really consider special needs children, it just turned out that way. It's been a blessing, it's changed our lives."

Even so, the Kishbaughs spent over $30,000 for their children, forcing them to mortgage their home and max out credit cards in the process.

That's where Help Us Adopt stepped in. The organization approved their application and funded two-thirds of their third child's adoption expenses.

"All the sacrifices are worth it. Everything we've done, I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Kishbaugh told MSNBC.

Help Us Adopt currently garners funds through individual donations, sponsored events, and also by selling its own collection of jewelry online.

Comments

[Connie Markley Boppre]

08:37 AM on 05/27/2011

thank you. thank you. thank you. finally, people willing to adopt children who need a family rather than cooking a baby up in a petri dish !

[maru67]

08:53 PM on 05/25/2011

"I sat there and thought if...I was told that I was not going to be a mother because I couldn't afford adoption, I don't even know what I would have done," said Fawcett, 40. "I don't know who I would have turned to for help. It just hit me. I knew how lucky we were."

Wow, change the word adoption to 'a baby' and that's EXACTLY what mothers of adoption loss actually do face. If society thinks it's unconscionable to not help financially with infant adoption, then it's a pure travesty that mothers and their children don't get help and are given a double-whammy of having their children stolen. This is so wrong on so many levels.

[Mama stef]

05:29 PM on 05/25/2011

A real hero would be someone who created a program to help keep families together.
No one offered me $30k to keep my baby. Instead I was forced into adoption rather than keep my child in a rat infested/cockroach infested shack with no food, no money, not even a car to find a job. I was perfectly capable of being successful both at motherhood and in society...but without help...ah, this is so sad. I'm practically stunned speechless.

I fully believe that keeping families together, giving the welfare system and educational system an overhaul (so that it actually helps people succeed/get on their own feet=happier, better educated, healthier & more fulfilled people in our society), taking parenting and motherhood more seriously (parenting classes, client based counseling for those from dysfunctional families, etc, quality lower cost day care, job training, women being allowed to bring their babies to work if need be, the ability to freely breast feed, etc etc etc) that after maybe 2-3 generations we'd be a much happier, less crime ridden, more sane and productive nation while saving millions.

Adopt from foster care for the love of all that is holy! Please? Women don't carry a child nine months to hand it over to strangers. They are FORCED into losing their precious babies.

[Robin Kinney Westbrook]

12:01 PM on 05/25/2011

Why, I wonder, are these funds not put into helping a mother and her baby stay together? Parenting education and a hand up until a little family is on its feet would cost a whole lot less than the tax breaks and subsidies given to those who adopt. Someone needs to speak to mothers who have lost their infants to adoption or to adult adoptees who are struggling to find their heritage. This pink and blue, cotton candy view of adoption has a dark and bitter underside.

[AdultAdoptee]

11:37 AM on 05/25/2011

The #1 reason women surrender to adoption is poverty and unpreparedness. Wouldn't it make more sense for money and assistance to go to mothers to help KEEP their babies?

Yet, there are over 120,000 children in foster care who are legally cleared for adoption who need new homes and it doesn't "cost" a thing!

Adoption should be about pairing children who need parents with parents, not pairing parents who want children with children--based on supply and demand no less.

As an Adult Adoptee, I am tired of hearing how much people spend to adopt children. If I didn't already feel like a commodity in a financial transaction, I sure do now.

(and don't bother assuming my opinions are based on how I feel about my adoptive parents or that I had a "bad experience." I didn't have a "bad experience" and my parents would more than agree with my opinion on this--sorry to dissappoint!).

[Mirah Riben]

10:57 AM on 05/25/2011

People are missing something here...

Adoption is intended to help children. The first way to do so is to help their families overcome whatever temporary crisis they are in, which is often financially based. US moms loose children because of inadequate day care or because they cannot affors aedquate housing or even food.

Overseas, there is no question that poverty is the number one cause of family dissolution via adoption.

If one wanted to be charitable and altruistic, would it not make more sense to find ways to help these families in crisis?

The $30-430k fees being paid to adopt is supporting a corrupt black market of child trafficking for adoption that has been documented by the UN, and journalists in China, Guatemala, Ethipoia and worldwide.

The UN and other child advocates prioritize family presentation first, in-country adoption second, and international adoption only as a LAST RESORT. for good reason:

- removing children one at a time via adoption does nothing to ameliorate the poverty of the family, siblings, the village, or nation
- high fees paid by Westerners make it more difficult for local families who would adopt, compete
- 90% of children in orphanages worldwide have at least one living parent or extended family who placed them temporarily to provide medical care, food or education, and intend to reunify their families, and are not available for adoption. This was the case with both children Madonna adopted.

Mirah Riben, THE STORK MARKET: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry

[Mrs Delacour]

12:20 PM on 05/26/2011

Mrs. Riben -

Don't be silly -- Adoption does not REMOVE children.

If it weren't for adoption there wouldn't be permanent loving families for poor unwanted children.

So many good people, mostly American, have beatufiul homes and a need to do something good - they fill a void in their lives by taking in these needy kids.