Cost

There have been a lot of blog posts about the cost of adoption floating around in blog land the last few weeks.  I didn't speak up right away because I wanted to think things through a bit before throwing my two cents into the ring.  So now that I've had some time to think things over and I've had time to read what other, more eloquent people have written, I'm going to attempt to not sound like an idiot.

I never once thought about how much I cost.  It never dawned on me as a child that my parents spent money on me.  I knew that my parents had money and that my natural parents didn't (they were young and poor, remember?), but I never thought about the money that I'm sure my parents must have spent.  I knew that we had to buy a new house in order to get my little sister.  I had figured that part out because I didn't know why we needed to move out of our small apartment.  My parents told me it was so that I could go to a nice school and so that I could have a baby brother or sister.  I know now that it made the home visit a lot easier when we moved.  We moved and we got my sister a year later.

It's funny, but the cost of adoption never once came up in my house.  I didn't realize that my parents probably shelled out a decent chunk of change to get me until I started reading up on adoption last year.  I was a bit horrified that I hadn't figured that out sooner.  I was shocked that it never crossed my mind.  And I didn't know how I felt about it.

On one hand, it didn't bother me too much.  I guess because I wasn't raised to believe I cost anything, it didn't really add to any of my "adoption issues".  On the other hand, it's slightly disturbing to me now that I was bought.  I mean, I thought it was illegal to buy people now a days?  Two people spend a ton of money and someone gives them another human being?  When you get down to the basics, that's what it is.  And I have a problem with that.

I don't think money has a place in adoption.  I get that the money is for "services" but I really don't see how all of these adoption executives need to make the amount of money that they are making.  I don't think that people should profit from tearing apart families.  Yes, families are built too but should one family really get to profit from another family's loss?

Then again, these are just the ramblings of someone who didn't figure out that her life had a price tag on it.  Fun times.