I've blogged about the adoption credits we've received for adopting our boys, but I've never blogged about the monthly adoption subsidy payments. Maybe that's because any recurring government payment is "sensitive" or "private" or maybe has a bit of a shameful connotation.
Our total monthly adoption subsidy for the the two boys is $1,936. We'll receive a subsidy payment each month until their 18th birthday. The payment will increase a bit when each child turns 13, because teenagers are more expensive. The payment could also increase if the Michigan Legislature votes to increase it, but they just did that a year ago, and the payment hadn't been increased since 1992, so I'm not holding my breath on that.
The way I look at it is that we have an agreement with the state of Michigan to parent a couple of boys whose natural parents couldn't do the job. Of the two boys' four natural parents, three have served significant time in prison (one is there right now). If we raise the boys in such a way that they don't end up in prison, I'd say that the state of Michigan has made a good investment. And, I think we're doing a bit better than just keeping them out of prison. Hopefully they will contribute to society in a positive way.
The boys also have special needs, and lots of doctor appointments(DS2's neurologist is in the Detroit area, about two hours away), and are still in diapers (yes, at ages 5 and 3, still in diapers). They are more expensive to raise than our two girls, both from an economic and emotional standpoint.
So, the adoption subsidy is nice. We happened to adopt the boys when the state of Michigan was broke, and state budgets were being cut all over the place, and DW fought tooth and nail to get the subsidies, because our state Department of Human Services originally denied the payments. We also had a good Probate Judge working with us. He threatened to drag the DHS person 2 1/2 hours from Lansing to justify her decision to deny our payment in his court room.
That's all. I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Our Adoption Subsidy
October 9th, 2013 at 02:43 pm
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Thanks for sharing that information. We are considering adoption. We've had our hearts set on Cambodia/Viet Nam and in December there should be a list of U.S. agencies that we can work with. We've always had international adoption as the way to adopt; we have strong connections with VN and could sustain the culture. More to consider ...
October 9th, 2013 at 04:42 pm 1381336936