Money, blah blah yuck

Money is the worst part of adoption.  I read somewhere, that if it weren't for the money issue, there would be lines of people trying to adopt.  And yet, in most cases, there are far more children/embryos waiting than available adoptive families.

I get that the economy has tanked in the four years since we last went through this process.  Side note, can you believe that it's been four years?!  We had just entered into the matching process with the Snowflake Program around Christmas 2008...   I am finding that fertility clinic costs have gone way up.  Thank goodness the Snowflake Program is the same price (actually $500 cheaper for us, as repeat customers) and our home study was much cheaper this time with our current local agency.

There doesn't seem to be too much consistency from clinic to clinic.  Pricing, number of required clinic visits, medical protocol, the list of variables goes on.

I finally called and scheduled initial consults at the two clinics in the Austin area that will take embryos from another clinic.  I haven't even walked through the doors to the clinics and already I'm being hit over the head with numbers.  Am I delusional in thinking our initial consult in 2009 was free?

Isn't an initial consult a time for you to meet with the doctors, they sell you their schpiel, and, in general try to buy your business?  Why am I already having to shell out money?  $265 at one place and, after a 50% military discount, $167.5 at the next place all for initial consults. 

I can't get straight answers from the clinics over the phone.  I can't accurately compare prices, number of required visits (remember we're coming from approximately 1.5 hours away), and medical protocol.  All this means I have to schedule these initial consults to determine between these two clinics.

Money

Money

Money

I hate you,

you stink.




I promise, I will really try to not use this blog just for ranting.  Look, I'll even end on a bright side - I finished our matching family profile.  Wrote the whole thing on one weekend!  Granted, I did cheat a little.  I found our old profile from four years ago and salvaged what I could.  I sure sounded young and idealistic in 2008.  Not that I'm insinuating that I'm old and bitter now, just that I've grown a lot in the last few years...  I'm not as concerned that every single written phrase on our adoptive paperwork be precisely perfect, because I'm not precisely perfect.  This time 'round, I'd rather our paperwork be an accurate reflection of me/us, not an uber polished version where the gleam conceals my humanity.