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StitcherAdoption is a beautiful door leading for families to grow and change lives, but the road to one sometimes comes with complex and daunting challenges. A newly covered topic for this episode, we will get to know Amanda Koval, an adoptive mom of two children who has helped over a thousand families with their adoption journey. In this interview, we explore ways to plan finances when deciding to pursue adoption.
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Amanda is an adoptive mom of 2 on a mission to help reduce overwhelm and unnecessary expense in the adoption process in the United States. She does this by teaching the step-by-step process of adopting a baby and creating adoption profiles that make an emotional connection so you can match your adoption faster. Amanda is proud to have helped form over 1,000 families over the past 8 years!
The Long Road to Adopting
Amanda shares the extensive journey of adopting her children. It was several years of struggling with infertility, which in itself costs a lot too. Deciding to adopt was a huge decision she made, and it overwhelmed her with how much there was to learn and do as there’s a whole new language in itself. She has adopted two children after an 11-year journey to get them into their family. She then realized the entire process was neither easy nor cheap. Every step of the adoption process felt like a big check to be written. It was daunting.
The Different Types of Adoption
Many people may not be aware of the different types of adoption, which is a great factor in the expenses to be made when deciding to pursue adopting a child. Amanda lists four different types of adoption, specifically private infant adoption in the US, and the estimated range of its expenses: embryo adoption ($5,000–$10,000, assuming you have medical insurance), self-matching adoption ($10,000–$30,000), adoption consultants ($40,000–$60,000), and adoption agencies ($60,000–$80,000). The fundamentals of the adoption process are the same, no matter what type of adoption you’re pursuing. The difference comes down to how much legwork and marketing/advertising dollars are being put behind it.
Adoption Agency or Self-matching?
When you’re working with an agency, they are leveraging the social worker to do vetting for both expective and adoptive families, which adds to the costs. In a self-matching process, you’re doing it yourself. but Amanda would recommend having a counselor guide you or going through her replicable system of adoption matching formula for people to follow. Remember when self-matching to seek all things legal (e.g., a social worker approving you to adopt in your state, an attorney), create a high-quality adoption profile, and support services for the expectant families.
Making Adoption Easier and Affordable for Everybody
Amanda’s goal is to make adoption easier and more affordable because she believes it doesn’t have to be hard. She wishes she could not have gone through the long journey of her adoption, but she wouldn’t be able to help a thousand families today if it weren’t for her goal to make this easier for everybody. She helps her clients forecast the expenses they may face, attack the number, and break it down to make it more digestible and not overwhelming. Something to keep in mind is that there is a federal adoption tax grant available for you to help in your adoption process, and that’s only one out of tons of other financial grants.
If you could be adopted into any fictional tv family who would it be?
- Amanda: ‘This Is Us’ because it hosts an adoption-literate family and she can relate to each of the characters in their own special way.
- Jen: It is bad and probably the worst family depicted in a TV series, according to Jen, but she chose the Roy Family from ‘Succession’, because it was the first family that came to her mind.
- Jill: Jill thinks the ones who never intended to have kids and feel themselves as ill-fit parents are often the best parents, which is why she chose April and Andy from ‘Parks and Rec,’ as watching them stumble through parenthood has been enjoyable for her.
Get more from Amanda
Bill of The Week
Thank you Amanda for sharing your bill about your activity bill for your kids! Paying for cheer and baseball!
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