Adoption Stories

Carson Family Adoption Story

With our only child preparing to graduate high school and plans for college already in the works, we were staring at an empty nest in the making. After trying unsuccessfully to have children we became interested in adoption. Dear friends of ours adopted two children, siblings age 4 and 6, and this encouraged us to explore the adoption option for ourselves. more >>

Picerne Family Adoption Story

«The Picernes, devout Christians who worship and are involved in several programs at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, didn't seek out their adoptive children. Each came under circumstances and hardships where they say, "God revealed a need" and enabled them to fulfill it.»
read the article at www.news-journalonline.com

Gwyn Picerne sat in a salon getting her nails done when a young mother entered cradling a 6-week-old baby. "Are you the woman who adopted the two children from Russia?" Picerne said she was and told the mother her baby girl was beautiful. "Would you take her?" As Picerne reached to hold her, she realized: The mother, who could not afford to care for her baby, meant for Picerne to keep the child. The baby, Natalie, is now 3 years old. That is just one of the stories behind the pencil-portraits that line a wall in the family room of the Picernes' nine-bedroom seaside Ormond Beach home. After having two biological children and adopting their oldest eight years ago, Gwyn and Bob Picerne have eight, who vary in ethnicity and range in age from 17 months to 24 years. Now they hope to share that joy, having started what state officials say is the only not-for-profit adoption agency based in Volusia and Flagler counties handling private adoptions. The new agency, Embraced by Grace in Ormond Beach , also will work with the state to help find homes for foster children. "I just have a heart for children -- I just love children," Gwyn Picerne, 43, said recently above the laughter of her eight children playing in the kitchen with her husband. "There's a lot of activity here. You hear how loud it gets, but it's sweet. I can't tell you how amazing it is. "It is a gift from God to have the heart to adopt," she said. read the article at www.news-journalonline.com >>