Lurker > Zanzenburger

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Are they kids from like an orphanage or like from out of the country?

Either way, good on you guys trying to help out these kids! Hopefully it all goes well for you guys.

They are currently in foster homes in the US.

MutantJohn posted...

I started reading up on adopted kids and the way people talk about them, it almost sounds like you're getting damaged goods no matter what. Jesus, man.

It can be pretty bad. All adoptive parents have to go through a 27-hour training to learn to deal with any mental or emotional issues they may have. I feel we are pretty prepared for whatever we get.

Part of the reward though is taking these kids and fundamentally changing their lives and put them on a better path.
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monkmith posted...

glad to see it TC but the adoption system is broken and you'll likely wait years. i've got a cousin who ended up resorting to adoption through some russian group since the american adoption system is so damn slow, though sadly the kid she got was likely involved in the sex trade industry there and has fairly severe psychological problems.

Wow, that's horrible.

I appreciate the heads up. It does help that I am more willing to take siblings and minorities, which adoptive parents traditionally don't want, so that does increase my chances. We will see.
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I remember the last time I made a topic about this, a lot of foster and adoptive CE peeps came in posting about their stories and how their lives were made better by foster/adoptive parents. If any of you are reading this, be aware your stories helped me in taking this leap and applying to adopt those three kids.
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Just did ours. We are getting $7500 back. Gonna put that into our expansion fund for our business.
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Paper_Okami posted...

My older brother and I (not related) were adopted, him three years before me. My parents say it took forever.

It does. The waiting is honestly the most stressful part. I got matches in February I applied for, and I still haven't heard back about them. They say if I haven't heard back by now, I didn't get them.

Senta posted...

Pretty much. Most people want to adopt a baby, so its harder and a longer wait. If you go for older, its much easier and faster, because not as many people seek to adopt them; and they like to TRY to keep siblings together if possible, so if you can take them as well, you shoot up the list very fast.

This is very true. This is why I'm more hopeful about these three. One child age 3 or less is like the holy grail for adoptive parents. 2 siblings are still very popular, but 3 and up are very hard to adopt together.

Sir Will posted...

Oh quite screwed I'm sure. But you'll get used to it. When times are tough just remember what a wonderful thing you're doing for them in providing a loving home and keeping them together.

Very true. There will be sleepless nights where I'm going to wonder if it was worth it. My hope is the the highs will overcome the lows.

Gojak_v3 posted...

So personal question so don't answer if you don't want: Do you and yer wife have issues conceiving? Is that why adopting?

Yeah, pretty much. I had a topic about this a few months back. It's not impossible, but she has PCOS which makes it more difficult to fertilize an egg. We figured we'd adopt for now until we can afford years down the road for medical methods of conceiving like in vitro.
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green butter posted...

you'll be fine, you and your wife sound like good people with a lot of love to give. im sure the kids will just be happy to be staying together and get out of the system.

good luck to you, hope your application goes through

That's one of the reasons we did it. We knew that if we didn't take them, they would likely get split up from each other.

Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

is that what the adoption process is like? sounds like what I went through for my dog

Yes, it is. It is strangely formulaic and like adopting an animal. It sucks to have to do it that way but it's the most efficient way to match the right kid with the right parent. They even have adoption days you're invited to where you can meet with them and pick them out of the group if you want them.

DelianSK posted...

Congrats man. Enjoy your new family!

Zurkon posted...

I hope you get them, good luck guy!

lww99 posted...

Good luck!

Thanks! It takes anywhere up to a month before I hear back so I'll be waiting a while.
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80/80

A few months back, I applied to adopt two kids. Babies, pretty much, so they were sought after by many and lots of families applied for them. Unfortunately, we didn't get selected.

So this month our case worker suggests to us three kids, all little girls. Despite our limit was two (as we put on the application), she wondered if we'd consider them. We saw their pics and looked at their background and fell in love with them. So my wife and I were "what the hell" and applied for them. Now we wait to see if we're selected.

How screwed am I, CE? The girls are 0, 2, and 6 years old. All siblings.
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Had to wait cause our businesses expenses took forever to track down since our previous manager was disorganized.

Should be finished today. So far, our new business losses and deductions will exempt me from taxes this year and most likely result in a refund (for reference, we got $10k back last year).
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apolloooo posted...

MabusIncarnate posted...

o.O

@apolloooo

@Zanzenburger

Thanks boo.
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Adopted my brother and let him live with me to get him free college
Bought/donated a Wii to foster group home for Christmas when they were impossible to find
Painted 5 houses for disabled people about to get fined for not meeting city regulations
Funded my sister's last semester of college in Australia
Coordinated a free family day at my laser tag center to provide a night of fun to low income families
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StucklnMyPants posted...

Go poop.

Tried, nothing's coming out.

drunkmuggle posted...

fart loud to assert dominance

Interesting. Own the meeting, you say?

Were_Wyrm posted...

https://tips.fbi.gov/

Reported.
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I have a meeting coming up in an hour. What do?
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I saw no point.

If it wasn't real, it was a waste of my time.
If it was real, I'm gon die.

There was no win either way, so why bother?
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tfw you realize you've become a furry.
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MabusIncarnate posted...

Well you didn't say all that to begin with, that's a pretty big massive difference than just calling it laser tag. I've gone to arcades, coffee shops and pool halls. I've never stepped foot in a laser tag facility. Now your annoyance is a bit more justified knowing the expanse of your business isn't limited to just laser tag.

Yeah, I just focus on the laser tag portion cause it's the core of my business strategy, but I do have all of that.
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TheVipaGTS posted...

is Chuck E Cheese even that big anymore?

Believe it or not it is. They still make a killing out of kid's parties.
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MabusIncarnate posted...

I'd think there is a much higher need and demand for women's clothing opposed to laser tag. Your business is very much a special interest that appeals to a pretty small demographic, her business is much more generalized and widespread. I can understand the difference in followers for sure.

TheVipaGTS posted...

no disrespect TC, but there is a bigger market for clothing stores than laser tag, regardless of how it was funded, she still turned it into what it is...

Not really.

My laser tag place is more like a local Chuck E. Cheese, with arcades and pool tables, as well as karaoke and a coffee shop inside.. It is the go-to place for family entertainment around here. The problem was I didn't have the marketing budget to reach my target audience the first year and a half. I used up all my budget on just getting the place open. Once I paid back some debts and reorganized, I was able to market more. Now I am over capacity at points with party bookings.

Her advantage was she had no expenses of her own, so she had essentially a blank check to market however and as much as she wants.
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jenningsnash313 posted...

That sounds about right.

What is her business though? Could be her business was more in demand than yours.

KLouD_KoNNeCteD posted...

What kind of business does she run??

She owns a small clothing boutique.

Don't get me wrong, my business is doing great now, it just took much longer than hers. Birthday parties are my main income. Bored housewives are hers. She had a larger marketing budget (like, it was enormous).
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Her business page just hit the 40k facebook like threshold and her business is about as new as my laser tag business. (For comparison I have 3k likes)
I come to find out this week that the building she uses is owned by her parents and they funded everything, from her inventory, to employees, and renovations for her shop. She needs to open a second location because she is too swamped in the first.

Meanwhile, I struggled my first year to get anyone to take a chance with my idea to fund it, hit some rough times paying some debts back, and spent too much time putting out fires to market my business appropriately. So right now, as I celebrate finally going three straight months in the black without any huge business-ending issue, this girl is opening her new place despite starting at the same time as me.

I know it's not her fault, but I'm jelly as heck that some people can just do what they want with no worries and have the path to success carved out for them while the rest of us have to grind endlessly to squeak by. I appreciate the opportunity to succeed on my own, but it would be nice to get a helpful push now and then.

</end midnight rant>
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

That show sucked ass after Ward died.

Well do I have news for you... <_______<
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fenderbender321 posted...

That's why we get rid of wage laws so that companies can pay people whatever they want. If it isn't worth training a person how to become, say, a financial analyst unless they could pay the trainee $1 an hour, then let them pay that so that people can actually have an opportunity to train. Everything sorts itself out from there in terms of prices, wages, availability, etc.

Internships were being abused *because* of the government rules in place regarding wages, internships, etc. And yes, more rules have helped to prevent that abuse, but those more rules screwed over people who want to do an internship but are no longer in college. If we just got rid of it all, like I said above, then a fair system would replace it.

And honestly, there's no way companies were paying interns that much less than what their work was worth, if it all. If an intern could come in and start doing the work of a financial analyst as good as an experienced one for $4 an hour, then the company wouldn't be paying financial analysts the salary they make. My guess is that interns were doing just basic work like organizing and other mundane tasks that the actual employees were having to do, but were just tedious and annoying, and easy enough for a child to do. Most places require employees to do those kinds of work.

And besides, heaven forbid an intern do real actual work. Isn't that kind of the point? You know...getting hands on experience? I say good for the companies that let them do that work, regardless of their pay. It's not like the college student is going to accept no pay or next to no pay after they graduate.

If I'm understanding your post correctly (and correct me if I'm not), you're saying that removing wage laws would allow companies to pay as little as they want and the workforce would naturally increase the salary based on the difficulty of the work?

This would work in an ideal economy, but the problem is that we are currently in an employer's market. There is a surplus of potential employees out there, and if we didn't have wage laws, employers could easily pay whatever they wanted, even if they weren't liveable wages, specifically because so many people are out there looking for a job. Someone would take the job, internship or not, that pays scraps because it's something, do it for a few months, and when they became experienced enough above their paygrade, their employer could sack them and get a fresh new person for the same pay.

Salaries would never increase. Employers have historically found ways to decrease employee costs, and without government regulation, they would use every loophole imaginable.

You make the assumption than an employer would pay more to have a more experienced employee. But if you find a more experienced employee willing to do it for less (and in this current market, they will), then they will have the best of both worlds. Pay very little and get desperate people needing jobs.

I'm a small business owner and I see this all the time among other small businesses down the street, cutting corners everywhere they can. I can only imagine what it's like at the corporate level.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

They can still take in the same number of interns, but they would just have to allowing graduating high school students as intern candidates.

As long as they can make it to an interview they have as good a chance as anyone else of being accepted.

This, basically.

fenderbender321 posted...

My point is, everyone should be eligible for unpaid/less-than-minimum-wage internships. It's these stupid laws that get passed saying employers can only offer internships to people who are eligible to earn college credits...why why why?

Because for a while, employers were using "interns" to do the work of regular full time workers, but without offering any benefits and paying them scraps. Like you said, wage laws and such are there to keep employers from replacing full time jobs with intern positions to save money. By tying them to college credit, it makes it easier to track who is doing what internship through college reporting. Without colleges reporting for-credit internships, the government would have no way of knowing what percentage of private companies use interns vs. full time/part time employees in their work.
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Balrog0 posted...

For people who are about to get a HS diploma? Seems unlikely they would get paid internships

My question with that, then, is if they would work with companies that offer internships to flex their requirements to attract a larger population of high school students to accommodate this change.
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You all realize that paid internships exist, right? And they are very common in many fields?

Also, I think this is an interesting idea. I'd love to see how they implement it and if it works.

Honestly, we really do need shakeups every now and then by people who try extreme ideas like this. Obviously the status quo is not working, but politicians are too afraid to try new things for fear of failure and not getting reelected. I'm curious to see how this experiment works out, similar to how Oregon's "free college for all" thing is working out that they started recently.

Innovations have to start somewhere.
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I swear it wasn't me... <.<
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apolloooo posted...

Nice. Is it related to your PhD program?

No, it's related to my job. I advise the SGA program here so I had to take the students to the conference. Free trip though so I'm not complaining.
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I was at a student government conference, so my drink was a sprite and an early bedtime. Gotta be at your best when dealing with them political folk. :O
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If you want it to heal faster, dig a deep hole, get in it, and then put a rope around your waist and hang in there for a few days. It should heal so fast that you'll literally be able to jump out of the hole.

It worked for Batman... <_<
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Congratu...lations?
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Very yes
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Agents of Shield has been on point this season.
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apolloooo posted...

is there another couple who's competing to get them? sorry it sounds like they're products or something. i dont have better way to word it

You are accurate.

All parents are put on a waiting list until children meeting our preferences are available for adoption. There are always more parents wanting infants than there are infants available, so the infant's case worker goes through the parent profiles and chooses the best parent for that child/children. It does make them seem like products but that is the only fair way to do it.

My only advantage is the kids are Hispanic and I am Hispanic, so I may have a leg up on White parents on the waiting list.
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apolloooo posted...

Yeah, but i know the context, but i havent caught up as of late. So 1 boy 1 girl iirc? How old are they?

The boy is two years old. The girl is one year old. I have been waiting 8 days to see if they picked us as potential parents for them. The case worker says it could take up to a month to get a reply. The wait is killing me. <_<
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Been waiting for my two children for a week and no response. Lol, that sounds weird out of context.
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Sauce
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Already did.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/400-current-events/74904819
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Aww, my adoption topic died. And right when we were getting to the good parts.
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apolloooo posted...

Zanzenburger posted...

I'm so used to CE being so used to mods posting regularly that I still get dumbfounded when posters in game boards make this huge deal every time a mod (me) posts in their topic. lol

because they are peasants. it's like nobility visiting farmyards and the peasants are dumbfounded

kek

Whereas CE is the large, urban metropolis where all advances in society originate?
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I'm so used to CE being so used to mods posting regularly that I still get dumbfounded when posters in game boards make this huge deal every time a mod (me) posts in their topic. lol
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AegonTargaryen posted...

I don't want to eat manburgers

When I first read this I thought you were shipping me with ManWithGun.
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Bruh... really? Warned again already?
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Dammit apollo, why'd ya have to go and get warned on us? What a cruel, cruel world.
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