Me and my Fiancé plan to adopt down the road (in approx. 5 years) after we have two children of our own first. We are planning to adopt from Ukraine or Russia. I know how horrible situations are down there, plus that is where my family came from so it just hits close to home for me. My questions is how do I even start the process? I understand I need to have a social workers come in and assess us first to gain approval, but then after that where do we go? We don't really want to go through an agency because they charge you an arm and a leg and we just don't have that kind of money to spend (30,000 +).. what are our other options?

Okay... you are under some misconceptions about the costs of international adoption.

Go to adoption.com and look under their international adoption section. They have some basic costs, plus the steps you'll need to take to start the adoption process.

Good luck!