"Our Foster/Adoption Financial Story": Jerri's Family

This post is part of our new guest blogger series, "Our Foster Adoption Financial Story." As new posts are added to this series you will be able to find links to them at the bottom of this post.

JERRI'S STORY

My name is Jerri, I am 45 yrs old and a stay at home mom. My husband and I have fostered numerous children, have had 3 failed adoptions, 2 successful adoptions and are in the middle of adopting a little boy with special needs from out of state.

My husband is 56 yrs old and is a Quality Assurance/Safety Manager of a small local business with an annual income of $40,000, I use to do interior design and make approximately $45,000 a year but since adopting our children I have been out of the work force for the past 10yrs. We are very fortunate that I have been able to do this but only because of our children's adoption subsidy.

Our children need 24/7 supervision, they will never be able to care for themselves financially and will always be dependent on someone else to care for them in life. My son is 17 yrs old has down syndrome and some minor health concerns, he receives a monthly SSI check that ranges from $321.00-$721.00 a month depending on what my husband makes in a week. My daughter is 7 yrs old and is Autistic and has fetal Alcohol syndrome, her monthly adoption subsidy ranges between $1700 and $1800 a month.

On average I spend 20+ hrs a week taking the children to music therapy, play therapy, occupational therapy, nutritionist and school meetings. That does not include at least 2 doctor appointments a month. This month alone my son was out of school for 2 weeks with asthma complications. If I had to have respite while I was at work it would have cost me $18 an hour. On top of that we would be struggling with severe behaviors because my son suffers from PTSD and the stress of his daily routine being different triggers his behaviors.

Over the years that we have been working with the system, there have been times that we have struggled financially. It is not always easy. Plus, when adopting a child in care that is not living with you all expenses are at your own risk. The little boy that we are in the middle of adopting at this point is still in a foster home in his state and so far in the past 6 months we have spent $3300 in travel expenses, extra food, diapers and clothing. If the adoption goes through we will be reimbursed $1200, if not we will have not only had our hearts broken once again but will be out quite a chunk from our annual income.