Average cost to adopt a child

Adoption Attorney Stephen Ravel explains what types of financial support are able to be covered by adopting parents for a birth mother and which types are illegal
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Average cost to adopt a child

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The financial issues involved in an adoption are the most difficult for both me and for my clients. Birth mothers are poor and they may need support along of the way; they may need rent, they may need utilities, they may need food, they may need their medical bills paid – all of those are legitimate payments. Anything that’s pregnancy related can be covered by the adopting parents. Now, you don’t have to pay that, you can decide that it’s too expensive or too risky and not go forth with that situation, but if the birth mother has financial needs to get through the pregnancy, then she has a legitimate right to get that from the parents. With my clients, I am the one that handles all that information. I don’t want my clients dealing with birth moms over whether or not they get $50 for food this week. I think that’s very difficult issue for the clients to be involved with. In addition, the birth mothers can’t end up better off because of the adoption. They can’t get a lump sum payment at the end for the difficulty of going through the pregnancy. In fact, it’s illegal to provide anything other than pregnancy related expenses, such as trips to Tahiti, or cars or any other kinds of lump sum payments at the end of the process.

Adoption Attorney Stephen Ravel explains what types of financial support are able to be covered by adopting parents for a birth mother and which types are illegal

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Stephen Ravel

Adoption Attorney

Stephen Ravel attended UC Berkley for his undergraduate degree and Santa Clara Law School for his law degree. Stephen has been an attorney since 1973, and has been involved with adoption law since 1984. He has handled over 1,300 adoptions since the start of his career. Stephen is married and has three children. His oldest child was adopted from Brazil at birth.

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