Its not news that the current economic crisis is effecting everyone. Savings cut in half, house prices down the drain and jobs threatened. We’re all cutting back. Going out to dinner less, buying store brands, delaying vacations, shopping only for essentials is becoming the new reality for everyone.

But does cutting back mean putting off your dream of building or enlarging your family through adoption? According to “The Adoption Guide” published by Adoptive Families Magazine, the cost of adopting an infant in the U.S. has an average cost of $15,000 to $25,000. (http://www.theadoptionguide.com/tools/planner/matrix). With those kinds of costs, is adoption still affordable?

The answer thankfully is YES, but you have to be willing to take on more of the work yourself. Adoption agencies provide many important and valuable services to help you adopt, but in these tough times, maybe you don’t need them all.

In the next installment, we’ll outline exactly what services are performed by an adoption agency that you might be able to do yourself, or do without.