Sunday, September 23, 2007

Adoption is an option- maybe?

I am not sure how all 3 pics ended up in a row, but there on here so what can I say! Okay, now all my words are blue and underlined, huh? Weird! I know I probably hit some random button, but it is after midnite & I can't figure out what I did so hopefully you can read it like this and it isn't doing anything awful like printing in German or something.
Ok, So guess what? No really Guess What!? GUESS WHAT?! Give up? well pics are of random stuff cuz I am in a selling frenzy for ebay and Amazon to sell sell sell! I need to sell all this stuff to raise $. I need to make more money because I want to adopt two cute special needs children! Yay! I probably told you before about the little girl and brother going up for adoption that I know thru my school. Well.... I had mentioned to other teacher in our room that I would take them home, she gave me some numbers and encouraged me to check it out, but last week she gave their foster mom the scoop that I was interested. She left me her number, but I thought teacher was just leaving it, blahblah blah, I am rambling. Anyhoo, today I am going to Dollar store & who do I run into but the kids w/their foster mom and foster gma! Little girl was very excited to see me & foster mom had a chance to talk to me. Turns out NO ONE has shown interest in the kids but me! I thought they had prob been matched so wasn't really getting excited. She also said because of both their special needs, she really wanted to find them a home with parents that have training, & education or experience w/special needs. Who has that? I DO! She also wanted family w/out small children since they will need alot of attention. Who has that? Me AGAIN! Ha! Yay me! I guess because of their different-abilities (not dis-abilities, tsk tsk ;)) people can get put off of adopting them, NOT ME! So...
I told her I would meet w/their caseworker and see what we can do about situation. My house is too tiny & that seems to be major hurdle so far. So have been brain storming on how to fix that. I can fund raise and work and sell things to try and get dough to remodel this house and either stay in it, or remodel and sell it to move into a bigger house that would accommodate the kiddos. Or, I can rent it out while renting my own bigger place and work on adoption first, then worry about house decisions later. To make any profit on house, I still need to do some remodeling ( finish basement which would add 1-2 rooms one of which could be a bedroom) which had no time limit before, but the adoption question means it would need to be done ASAP and we don't have the funds ready for that. So I have to try and figure out what to do. Unless ...
I win the lottery in the next couple of weeks. LOL So my Amazon.com name is a-baby-dream-for-us and my ebay name is antiques-books-n-crafts. I had listed a couple things in last couple days just to test it out, but NOW I am motivated to really kick things off. So I will be listing as much stuff as possible, as soon as possible. So today's pics are a few that I am getting ready to list on one of those sites. I have a lot of books to list, some old- some new. Then I have a bunch of random things like antique cameras, stamp sets, antique lightning rod balls, stamps, dishes, ... I will of course list more things that do well and less of types that don't do well, as time goes on so can't say what all will show up later!
I am working on items that I can make and sell also. So here is my question for you...What items do you think ppl would be interested in buying? Here are some ideas...I can make scrapbooks or scrapbook pages that are specifically for diff ppl. Such as a scrapbook for a lesbian couple having a baby using a sperm bank! I know I was going to make my own since it is hard to find a baby book that includes both moms, maybe other ppl need that too? Of course the pages could be made for all diff situations- SMBC using sperm bank, adoption, single lesbian using known donor, I mean whatever kind ppl would want. Here are the basic list of work I have done in past:
  • Make jewelry-I am working on a infertility bracelet right now using materials that have qualities to help, or that represent fertility,
  • scrapbook or card making- could be situation specific especially appealing to minority groups such as sperm bank users, G/L/B/T/? families, SMBC, special needs families, and so on,
  • photography-
  • ribbons-everyone makes the little ribbons that you sell and ppl wear to support causes, such as cancer ribbon, or m/c, infertility, etc
  • reg ol' fundraising-ask ppl for donations using a scratch card that gives them coupons, or just pass the hat (or baby hat lol),
  • Diapers for dolls- I am also working on making cloth diapers for niece's dolls since she got a wetting doll for her b-day that conveniently comes with just one disposable. (What is she s'posed to put on her baby after that? Jeez ) So I could sew them and include a variety of ties or Velcro or buttons so that it also becomes a fine motor practice tool for young ones and sell them in packs,
  • Gift baskets- I can make cute gift baskets and could again make them for grps that often find it hard to find items that suite them. G/L/B/T/? parents to be, adoptive parents to be, { adoption shower gift for your gay guy friends hello? I could make cute basket!} basket for new college student, vegetarian baskets for college student(much harder to find than you would think since all "dorm survival " includes ramon noodles and other meat filled snacks, or gasp! leather items.) How about a TTC basket for friends you know are needing support? Or gift baskets for kids b-day or whatever, that is full of items that are helpful towards working on their specific special need? ( Like a game recognizing emotions on ppls faces for an autistic child ) It could have multiple items geared for them!

So I need major feedback, let me know what ideas you like and why, what things, you would buy and why, what things you feel there is a need for & all that. Thank you so much! You will be my marketing research grp if that is ok?! LOL!

So I am running out of room and need to go to sleep BAD, but just a quick note about the kids. Some of their challenges are leg braces, sensory integration disorder, behavioral issues, night terrors & emotional issues. (Not both of them, but together they each have some of those issues. I don't want to get too specific about them due to confidentiality since right now I am just a teacher, not parent. ) They do some of same activities/sports that my family members do ( I normally watch the sports or sit w/the babies so my sis can play! ) so that would be great to be able to take them along with us and do stuff together as a big family! They even have some of the same looks as some of my family members so they will appear as if they have been w/us forever! I am very excited! Yay! I am going to talk with their caseworker this week and will know more then. :) Going to bed finally, talk to you soon! T

3 comments:

kittenroar5 said...

Yea! Exciting news!

I think there might be a market for the scrapbooks, espcecially for LGBT families.

Good luck on the sales!

Michelle said...

I think you have a great plan going on.
Im a big scrapbooker so I would buy scrapbook pages for hetro married couple using sperm bank.
I would also buy cards to fit our situation, for ex: pregnancy announcement telling a little about our TTC history and then annoucing that we are pregnant thanks to a donor.
I would buy your gift baskets for TTC friends, welcome baby boy or girl.
I would also buy a care package type basket for my deployed husband and friends and their families.

I hope I was able to help!

battynurse said...

That is so great about the possible adoption. I am very excited for you and hope it works out. As far as the selling stuff goes. I've always done really well on e-bay although somethings do sell better than others. I really like the idea of the scrap books. those are great. So many people want to do the scrapbooks but don't have time so to have a ready made one, especially that is geared towards their situation and all they have to do is add photos is really cool.