Chapter 30 – Final
As time wore on, I found that I was spending less and less time at Universal and more and more at my shop and running Forever a Toddler. After 2 years at Universal I quit to focus on my shop, and Forever a Toddler’s business ventures, which seemed to be growing.
In 2008 the sewing business outgrew the operations that we had going. Also Jake’s Mom Sharon finally decided that enough snow was enough. She had been wintering in Florida for longer and longer over the past couple of years.
Aunt Sharon had been looking for a place and spring of 2009 she found it, right next to mom and dad at the trailer park. It was also around this time that mom and dad were looking to sell their old house in Ohio that had been pretty much empty except for being a store house for Forever a Toddler for the last 4 years.
Business had been very good. Mom had even had to start contracting out work making diapers and baby clothes. Aunt Sharon had been getting some extra help for about a year. I guess we pay more than some of the other garment companies do.
Dad, Jake and Sharon timed it all right. Just as the weather was getting hotter in Ohio, a large order dad was working on was done as well. Aunt Sharon had went back to Ohio and was getting her house packed up, getting her projects finished up. She had got all the stock in our old house boxed up along with getting the remaining furnishings sold from our old house.
The plan was to deliver the furniture to the client, then head to Aunt Sharon’s and load up her house and head back to Florida. Both houses had been listed with a realtor and surprisingly sold quickly for the asking price.
In July of 2009 Finally Jake and Sandy got married. The company had given Jake and Sandy a wonderful honeymoon present. We sent them to Vermont to a B&B. The surprise for Jake was that this B&B had bought 2 full nursery setups. Jake would go on to say it was the best week ever.
Well there it is, my first 30 years. At this point I still run the sign shop primarily, which itself is not that busy. I spend most of my time answering emails about Forever a Toddler, handling schedules for the businesses.
Sammy is 13 now and growing like a weed, he is smart too, taking advance classes in math and science. He never lets anything stop him, be it incontinence, using crutches or a wheelchair
We have about 10 employees outside the family. Juan is an assistant manager in the furniture shop. Helping dad build the furniture more than working in the sign shop. To keep up with the demands we keep a stock of our ‘Basics’ line pretty much ready to ship worldwide.
Jake decided to quit ‘the mouse’ after a subordinate found that he was a little and then proceeded to cause drama. Jake ended up having to complain to HR, which instantly fired the employee.
Now with his little side out, he decided to just devote the time to being his own boss. He started an IT consulting firm and bills out three times what he made working for the park.
Sandy ended up opening a daycare center where she had a waitlist a mile long to get into. She also is the voice of her own podcast for littles, where she reads children’s books, and hosts roundtables for other topics for the community, which Jake, myself and others join in on.
Sandy would fly up to the camp in the summer to help with the business side of the camp.
Sandy and Jake would decide that children were not something they wanted. Sandy said she had ‘her kids’ at the daycare and ‘Baby Jakey’ at home and that was enough for them.
Mike our employee that handles the summer camp would email about once a week with photos of the work done. One of the goals for the camp was to make it fully accessible for all. That meant paving many of the trails, walkways and more. Installing ramps and lifts to make all the areas for activities accessible for all campers. He also said he was working on his college degree, taking classes in childhood psychology .
By the 4th year, the camp was down to running only 1 weekly session of ‘normal’ summer camp; all the other sessions were used for TBDL and ABDL camps. We also started hosting groups in the winter for hunting retreats, using the large lodge and conference center instead of the campers cabins.
If it were not for my accident, I don’t think I would have all that I have, the wife, kid, family all around and the success either. Heck who knows, maybe this all was my true destiny, maybe not. We will never know, but what I do know is I would not trade it for anything.