When I began the journey to create Girls of Faith dolls I dreamed of having our dolls made in America. I started talking to other moms and found that they, too, were frustrated by the fact that no toy vinyl dolls on the market today are made in America. So, I began a search and soon found out why we moms couldn’t find any American made vinyl dolls. There were no manufacturers left in our country!
One company kept popping up on my search, but they only made baby dolls and baby doll kits for artists and collectors. They agreed to make our dolls even though they had never produced a toy for children. We had a beautiful face mold that my then business partner, Shane Hodges, molded herself, and our doll was gorgeous and completely original and completely ours. (This is the doll you see pictured with little girls on the website and also pictured in the Shop tab with the books and clothes. Our current doll is pictured in the shop tab for each doll).
But, there were issues with manufacturing. It seemed that our producer could not create limb attachments that held up to child’s play 100% of the time. We worked through those struggles the best we could, doing repairs and replacing broken dolls. It meant a lot to me to have our dolls made in the USA and some hiccups along the way weren’t going to change that. It has always been a top priority to me to have 100% customer satisfaction and I have done everything I could to ensure that, even when it meant loosing money so broken dolls could be replaced.
Then Covid hit, and our small manufacturer experienced set back after setback, and finally had to go out of business. I was devastated, of course, and had no way to move forward with American made dolls. So, I just let the business sit, so to speak, for a year and a half or more. I had no desire to try to begin production in China. I waited and prayed.
I came in contact with a lady and her husband who were dreaming of starting a doll manufacturing facility in TX. Hallelujah! But these things take money and time. They are still not to a place at which they can begin manufacturing. She eventually offered to allow me to use her existing doll that is currently made in China. She sent me a sample and at first I couldn’t imagine moving forward without our original face mold.
But, the new doll’s sweet face began to grow on me and God began to speak to my heart saying that the message of Girls of Faith still needed to go out to young girls now, despite what doll I used. So, I sent the new doll out to a few customers and they were all very happy with her.
Now there are many happy customers across the country enjoying her and there have not been any issues with limbs detaching which is a huge relief to me. I’m still in constant prayer that eventually our original doll can be made in the USA again, but I am so thankful that God prompted me and opened the doors to this new, temporary, doll when He did because our girls need them now more than ever.