The story of A Carpenter’s Son Design Co. is a deeply personal one. What started as one family’s avenue to raise funds for a domestic adoption has turned into a business helping others through the process.
Josh Scheutzow calls it a story within a story. He and his wife are now parents to three healthy boys, ages six, four and a newborn, but there were some trying moments to arrive there. First, the couple’s four-your-old son fell extremely ill, landing in the hospital for nearly six months.
It was a traumatic experience that later affected the couple’s ability to continue to bear children.
“We had to make a decision on what we wanted to do, so instead of pursuing expensive fertility treatments, we decided to look into adoption,” Scheutzow says.
The couple found the Choice Network in Worthington. The agency helps to mentor and coach women facing unexpected pregnancies through their options, including adoption.
However, “Currently with the legislation in Ohio, adoption is pretty expensive,” Scheutzow says.
The agency was transparent about the costs and their allocations for legal, medical and birth expenses, but the family would need some $35,000 to make the adoption happen.
“We started thinking about how to do that,” Scheutzow says.
He had quite literally grown up a carpenter’s son, learning the craft from his father who is a master carpenter. One year, Scheutzow used his skills to build a birthday present for his wife – a cutting board the shape of Ohio the couple displayed on their wall.
“People would come over and see it and say, ‘That’s really cool. Where did you get it?” Scheutzow says. It was often followed by a, “Can you make me one?” when they found out he was behind the design.
That’s where it all started.
“Let’s try and sell these to raise money for the adoption,” the couple thought.
He would make hundreds and hundreds of the cutting boards by hand. Scheutzow says many people knew they were trying to raise money for their adoption and requested custom projects – tables, benches, etc. A Carpenter’s Son has now made pieces for homes, to corporate offices, to coffee shops.
Friends would step up to the plate as well. Now Partner Jake Busch helped Scheutzow hand-craft items for free as his way of contributing to the cause. Another friend with a clothing company gave him the rights to sell a wood-grained Ohio t-shirt. The thousands of shirts sold launched another avenue for fundraising.
Scheutzow and Busch were plugging along, crafting cutting boards to tables as a side hustle on top of full-time positions in the construction industry, when the Scheutzow family got the news they were waiting for. The agency had found a woman in a position to put her child up for adoption.
While the newest addition to the family showed up a little early and spent some time in the hospital, the Scheutzow’s are now parents to a healthy seven-month old son. After waiting the required six months, the family legally adopted the boy at the end of June and, “Along with that we paid off the adoption in full,” Scheutzow says.
Things didn’t feel done, though.
“We decided we need to keep this going,” Scheutzow says. “We have an opportunity.”
A Carpenter’s Son set up a business model to give back to other families in the adoption process.
Having sponsored three families so far, “One hundred percent of proceeds from t-shirt sales goes directly to these families for their adoption fees,” he says.
It’s a way to continue to fulfill the family’s mission and passion of seeing more children being given safe and stable families, while helping to bridge the gap financially.
“People seem to like the story between having something hand-made and custom that can be a part of their family and their family’s story, and also carry the significance,” Scheutzow says.
A Carpenter’s Son Design Co.’s mission is two-fold. First, create rustic pieces built to last a lifetime, utilizing as much locally sourced, locally salvaged wood as possible, all while providing resources to families that are adopting.
For more information, visit acarpenterssondesignco.com.
For more information on the Choice Network visit choicenetworkadoptions.com.
