You wouldn't believe how how expensive children are these days.
No, not the cost of feeding, educating and caring for them.
The cost of adopting them.
There are thousands of children needing homes and thousands of families who want to adopt children. But there's the cost — in the $20,000 range in Utah, and higher nationally.
Larry Jenkins, a Salt Lake attorney and a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, recently sent out an e-mail to 300 members of the academy asking them for the average price of adoption in their state.
"It's between $25,000 and $30,000," says Jenkins. "In Texas, it's $35,000-$40,000."
These prices are based on going through an adoption agency. There are other options that sometimes can be cheaper but not always effective. Private, one-on-one adoptions can make it considerably more difficult to find a baby; state agencies consist largely of custody cases involving older children with "issues"; church-affiliated agencies can be cheapest, but the wait can be long and frustrating.
Overall, adoption from all sources falls between $10,000 and $40,000, according to Jenkins. For the price of a luxury car — and then start saving for another child. Never mind the expenses after the adoption is completed.
One mother says she has spent a total of $60,000 to adopt three children. Kathy Kunkel, who founded the Act of Love Adoption Agency and has adopted eight children herself, paid $24,000 to adopt her last child. Another couple reports they spent $18,000 to adopt a 2-year-old boy from Europe.
"There is a huge need, and there are families who want kids, but when they see what it costs, it scares a lot of them off," says Jenkins.
Either that, or they take out second and third mortgages or borrow money from friends or relatives.
Go figure. There are all those babies out there who need families, and all those families who want babies, and it is widely agreed that everyone is better off, society in general included, and yet the costs can be prohibitive. As the people in the adoption business like to say, it's easier and cheaper in this country to get an abortion than an adoption.
On March 12, the Act of Love agency is sponsoring "An Evening with Angels," a black-tie affair at the Salt Lake Marriott City Center featuring Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman as the keynote speaker and pro football players Luther Elliss and Jeff Hartings as masters of ceremony. The purpose is to raise funds to set up a fund that would help defray the costs of adoptions.
"The cost is ridiculous," says Deb Tanzi of the Act of Love agency. "It keeps kids from going to loving homes for people who can't afford it."
The expenses add up — care for the birth mother, medical expenses, advertising costs, legal fees, counseling and travel expenses when needed, background checks of the adoptive family, and meeting the many requirements required by law. It takes six to 12 people to complete one adoption.
"I have a hard time with (the costs), and I'm the founder and CEO (of Act of Love)," says Kunkel. "There are just so many expenses that need to be covered, and it comes back to the adoptive families."
Kunkel, Jenkins and others in the business complain that government demands many more requirements for adoption agencies than for private adoptions, which means the most effective means of completing adoptions is handicapped by added expenses.
"There ought to be a way to make this easier," says Jenkins. "There are thousands of kids who need homes; there ought to be more cost-effective ways to get this done."
Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesday. Please send e-mail to drob@desnews.com.