Stu,
It was me that was selling the blanks to help pay for our adoption expenses. By the grace of God, we were able to do a private adoption of a newborn baby girl January 21 of this year. Private adoptions cost about 1/5 that of agency adoptions so it only cost us $5,500 instead of $25,000 through an agency. As a result, we met our goal and paid for our entire adoption by selling wood on the internet. Since we no longer need to raise funds for the adoption, I have closed the Adoptwood.com website. Thank you very much for you interest though.
Frank,
The only controversey I ever saw was posted by JayR at Woodnet when I anounced that I had bought a new Nova DVR lathe. If you guys would have read the thread, you would have noticed that my Dad gave me money to buy the lathe since he is a big fan of my woodturning and wanted to help me get a better lathe since we had been dealing with all the stress of the adoption. Also, the lathe was bought AFTER we brought our duaghter home. NOT A SINGLE PENNY of the adoptwood money was ever used for anything except our adoption expenses. Once these obligations were met, we closed it down. If I was in it for the monetary benefit, I would have kept it open since no one would have known one way or another.
Brian,
Thank you for BUYING some blanks from me. You, along with 250 other woodturners helped make our family complete! Just to clarify, though, I don't believe I EVER "asked for money for adoption" from anyone. I simply provided pen and bowl blanks on the honor system. I shipped blanks to people all over the country and allowed them to pay whatever price they felt was fair. I never asked for donations from anyone. Some people paid less than the market value, some paid market value, and some paid more than market value. Some wanted to help us out while others just wanted a good deal on some nice wood. Heck, 15 people out of 250 completely stiffed me! All in all, it was a great experience all the way around.
Anyway, I just wanted to clarify things and set the record straight. It was the real deal and nothing underhanded or controversial happened. Thanks for reading this!
Curtis O. Seebeck
www.TurnTex.com
"Cactus Pen Pioneer"