Illustrator Issues. What should I do?

While browsing the Internet, I decided to spend some time finding out more about publishing for children. More to do with the illustration side. An obvious project for someone writing a book with pictures for children. These are two things I found.

• My market age group is six to nine years old. (Now I know my genre niche).
• My illustrations will probably not be used. *Screech, rewind eyes and read again* (Yes you read correctly my precious Polly Poppy and Wallis Worm might never see the light of day).

To quote one site:

• Unless you are a professional illustrator, we do not recommend including illustrations with your manuscript; an art director, designer or editor will choose a trusted illustrator she thinks suits your work.
• Do not attempt to indicate where you would like your illustrations placed in your story, or what they should portray. This is the province of the art director, and/or the designer and the illustrator.

To quote another:

• If you're not a professional artist, don't try to illustrate your book yourself. If you don't have a particular illustrator in mind for your book, you don't need to find one before submitting your manuscript. Publishers often have illustrators they like to work with, and a filing cabinet full of the portfolios of many more that they can contact to illustrate your book if it's accepted. 

 To quote another:

Do I need to find an illustrator?

No, the publisher selects the illustrator. Even though picture books end up with text and illustration seeming to be inseparable, many of them start out as manuscripts, and stay in that form until after a publisher offers a contract to the author. Only then does the publisher select an illustrator, who will typically receive half of the royalties for the book. The publisher works with the illustrator through sketching, layout, and final illustrations, and may not involve the author much in the process. Authors are often unhappy about that, but it's done to let the illustrator develop his or her own vision.

 To quote an illustrator:
Now, if you include art in a picture book submission, the publisher will judge it according to the standards of the industry. That means, if you want ANY chance of being published, the art has to be of professional quality, good enough to hold its own on a bookshelf next to tons of other big books being published.

Now I am a little disappointed with this as you can imagine. DH said to self publish and use my own drawings. I am not so keen on this route, but if it means waving goodbye to my little friends I might have to consider it, I love them too much to push aside. They go hand in hand with the manuscript. I am not so sure I want to share half my royalties for pictures that I might dislike.

What shall I do?  
Do you know differently?






Sample snippets from Chewy Chester Meets Wallis Worm
Snippet 1
Snippet 2
Snippet 3

Meet more characters I have created for the book.  
Before they go into a file forever.