Mehmet and his wife Michaela have recently bought and renovated a lovely three-bedroom home in hopes of expanding their family. Unfortunately they are unable to get pregnant (as per ACR randomization) so now I'm not sure what to do. Should they:
a) remain childless
b) use a sperm donor or surrogate
c) ???

Adoptions haven't been unlocked yet so that's not an option for them. Mehmet's brother Sergey has volunteered to be a sperm donor for the couple, if that's what they decide to do. All suggestions are appreciated!

c) Have they tried IVF or IUI (i.e. with the help of mods, like InSim or SimBlender or InTeen, and a bit of imagination, of course)?

Hope things work out well for them!

P.S. Since surrogacy is an option, this mod by kestrellyn might be useful: https://modthesims.info/d/658001/surrogate-hack.html

Also, what do you mean by 'Adoptions haven't been unlocked yet'?

They're playing a challenge where you have to complete certain things before other certain things are unlocked. I'm honestly surprised that surrogacy/sperm donation was unlocked before adoption.

They haven't yet, I didn't even think of that option to be honest. I do have kestrellyn's surrogate and sperm donor mods which I've been waiting to try out as well.


Yes, sorry, I keep forgetting that not everyone plays a challenge. Surrogacy/sperm donation became available when hospitals were unlocked but adoption requires a Downtown and there isn't one attached yet.

I too am a bit surprised at surrogacy & sperm donation being unlocked before adoption.

What about informal adoption? An arrangement between friends without the involvement of the authorities? Maybe a child from a family blessed(?) with more children than they can cope with, coming to stay with them for a while. It might even become permanent if the child is happy to stay.

When I was a child, my sister and I used to occasionally go and stay for a few weeks with our grandmother who lived about half a mile (1 Km) away. I rather like introducing my Sims to this sort of informal arrangement. The mods that I have that let my Sims propose to a child that they move in, are a help here. The child has the final say on when, and even whether they move in. The Sim asking them to move in may be an adult, an elder, a teen, or even another child, but they have to build up a relationship with the child before the child will accept the proposal to move in. The nearest I can think of this in our Veronaville is Scot Philippine. As it comes, there are two townies in Veronaville with the surname Philippine: Scot (a child) and Nancy (a teen) I decided to make them brother and sister. Now Nancy then got into an arguably unsuitable relationship with a Romance adult playable called Gerard Paton, and he persuaded her to move in with him. Once she had moved in, she set about getting her young brother to move in too. As townies they weren't particularly close, so she had to work quite hard to make him feel welcome in the house she now shared with Gerard. She eventually persuaded Scot to sleep over, and he did this a couple of times before he finally agreed to move in. Their house in Greaves Avenue in downtown Veronaville (across the rod from the Fresh Rush Grocery) is a new build, based on the Nightlife "Tiny House", but built with only one bedroom, like the ones in Mendoza Lane. The delay in Scot moving in gave them time to build a bedroom for him. Money was very tight, so its a tiny 3x2 lean-to structure with a flat roof. There's room for Scot and his bed, and not much else. Though, now that finances are a little better, I think we could squeeze in a little bedside table! Though he was initially a bit reluctant to move in, Scot is now very happy to be part of the family.

I've gone into a lot more detail than I meant to, but I think you could informally "adopt" a child in the same way as Nancy persuaded her little brother to move in with her and her boyfriend. I would strongly recommend doing it with the full agreement of the child's parents; I'm sure Mehmet and Michaela wouldn't want to leave themselves open to the possibility of being accused of abducting a child!! A child informally "adopted" in this way keeps their surname and connections with their birth family, and they can easily move back home if the situation allows. In some ways it might be better than formal adoption, as I'm not convinced that the social workers always consider the wishes of the child.

By the way, MMAA and Charity, it's a version of the Build a City Challenge (BACC). I'm sort of involved since Väinö Mikhailov came to Veronaville looking for a boyfriend (as there were no other gay teens in his native Portland). He has now returned home with a Veronavillian boy called Iain Wells. Pinkdynamite, have you any more news about how Väinö and Iain are getting on?

Interesting! Also, FYI, in some (or most?) medical cases, you may not need a donor sperm or donor egg for IVF or IUI. It can be the couples' or biological parents' own sperm and egg. Depends on the medical case.

I thought about this too, but I don't have any families so far with children to spare. Most of the households have only one or two children, although I do feel sorry for the Sharpes whose four children are all about to age up to teens soon!


I like the Sim Blender for this too. That's the worst part of in-game adoptions, in my opinion.


No news yet. I'll be starting the next play round within a few days and Iain's household will be going first. I'm planning on aging him up to an adult, since he's made quite a few friends so far, and asking Väinö out on a date then. Hopefully they like each other as much as adults as they do teens. I'll be sure to post pictures of their first "official" date. (On an interesting note, Mehmet and Sergey are cousins to Väinö!)

Well, Portland had it's first townie death. Teen Magda was over visiting the Sharpes after school when evidently she got struck by lightning and died. No one in the house noticed until the Grim Reaper was already on the way out, and unfortunately she wasn't friends with anyone who could have saved her anyway. Currently she's haunting the backyard as I'm not sure what to do with her tombstone. Should she be buried at the local cemetery with Portland's deceased playables or should I start a separate townie graveyard? How common is it actually for townies to die, and would a separate cemetery even be worth building?

Just because they're townies doesn't mean that they aren't a part of the community. One graveyard for all.