Editor's Note: Whichever route to adoption you may choose, it is important to weigh the financial responsibilities involved in bringing a child into your home. Through the month of October 2003, Sound Money is producing weekly reports and interviews to delve further into the various options outlined here. In addition, you have an opportunity to ask experts online for their advice about adoption procedures, tax credits and employer benefits available to adoptive families. We also encourage those of you with personal experience to share your adoption stories with us and with others on our online forum The Exchange.

More Americans are considering adoption as a way to create or extend their families. According to the Census Bureau's first profile of America's adopted children, more than a million and a half adopted kids under age 18 now live in US households.

When it comes to adoption, today's parents have a wider range of alternatives than they did even a decade ago. Whether adopting through an agency, a private attorney, a state foster system, or internationally, each route has its own set of financial costs and benefits. More >>