I will comment on the adoption process. We actually went through the process about two years ago or so. We went through LSS. We got as far as we could then the money became an issue. They were very pleasant to deal with but when we didn't agree to their terms on financial it became very clear they use this is a way to make lots of money off people who want children. When the process was churning along I started asking questions about total cost, they would never give me a total value, they just said 20K minimum and up to 30K depending on the mother. Now the 20K is a bunch but we were prepared make that commitment. Problem was they wanted the money, that was not returnable with no guarantees that you would ever get a child to adopt. I said why would we give up a large some unless there was some reassurance we would not be out the funds. they basically said this is how it is. I questioned this practice and they said one you pay and are in the system you qualify to be picked for adoption, but if you don't pay you can't be a candidate. they said we don't want you to feel like your paying for a child and paying for the process. Make no mistake about it your paying for a child. We went through this for a while. One parent we talked to who did end up adopting said they were chosen but the mother of the child wanted cash for her troubles. didn't bother me but she wanted money but 50K....I thought to myself WTF??? this particular person paid it because they wanted a child so badly and had the money.
Its all about the $$$$. We then looked into adopting from china and other countries through an international agency BUT the US GOVERNMENT makes this very VERY difficult and you better be willing to pony up 50K+ as well. Both international agency's we talked to said you pay the US government for the process and the foreign county. No matter what people say or claim you pay to both govt. some how and its very spendy.
Bottom line is there are lots of people who want to adopt the mass amounts of children in the system but high costs and massive red tape prevents this from happening and its really disgusting. We eventually gave up because the stress and costs just got to be too much.
__________________
|