An adoption pendant designed in-house by owner Lori VanDuyne is available only at Fernbaugh’s Diamonds and Fine Jewelry and online through http://www.fernbaughssilver.com/adoption-of-love for mothers who adopted children like Lori and husband (co-owner) Brian did. The artist hopes to spread the message, Adoption Is Love, in this newly designed original jewelry that is available in sterling silver or 14k gold with an 18″ chain and the option to add one’s birthstone or a diamond.
“There is such a need for children to be adopted,” states Lori, “that I want to acknowledge those who have done so and help the cause with continued awareness.” The teardrop shaped pendant is full of symbolism and inspired by the VanDuyne’s own sons, Chase and Noah. It comes together at the top (bringing two together) yet is broader at the base to support the lives and love intertwined and nesting together through the adoption experience. The shared heart in the middle overlaps and is strengthened when comfort has been found within a loving home. A meaningful monogram is found on the back.
To introduce her exclusive creation, Fernbaugh’s chose to give one of the Adoption Is Love pendants away to Kim Selis, a Mishawaka mother and neo-natal nurse at Memorial Hospital. She and her husband Matt have four children of their own and adopted four siblings who were otherwise to be separated making a wonderfully blended and happy family of ten now. Besides the give-away, Lori and Brian are looking for a related not-for-profit business to donate proceeds from the Adoption Is Lovependant to in the future.
Lori has seen a need and designed jewelry to fulfill that need in the past too. Her popular blueberry pendant and earrings honor the Marshall County Blueberry Festival, nationally known over Labor Day weekend. The featured Lapis bead is said to increase psychic abilities and eliminate negative emotions. Visit www.blueberrycharm.com. In addition, Tri Kappa Plymouth chapter is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and Lori has designed a necklace specifically for its members.
The Fernbaugh’s store in Plymouth opened in 2006. The original store remains in Logansport. The VanDuyne family moved to Plymouth in 2009 because they like the Plymouth community and want to invest in it further through living here. For more information contact: Lori VanDuyne, (574) 936-1577, 206 N Michigan St, Plymouth, Indiana, 46563.
Photo caption for attached photo: Lori VanDuyne of Fernbaugh’s Diamonds and Fine Jewelry acknowledges Kim Selis, mother of eight children, four of her own and four adopted children with the new ‘Adoption is Love’ pendant that Lori designed and developed. Two of Kim’s children, Hannah and Heidi are also shown here. Photo Credit: Rachel Herbert Varchetto
Fact Sheet
2007 breakdown of adopted children in the United States: Private domestic, 677,000 (38 percent); foster care, 661,000 (37 percent); international, 440,000 (25 percent)
On any given day in the U.S., more than 423,000 children are in the foster care system, and nearly 115,000 of them are available for adoption, just waiting for the right family to find them.
- There are 423,773 children in the U.S. foster care system; 114,556 of these children are available for adoption. Their birth parent’s legal rights have been permanently terminated and children are left without a family.
- More children become available for adoption each year than are adopted. In 2009, 69,947 children had parental rights terminated by the courts, yet only 57,466 were adopted.
- Children often wait three years or more to be adopted, move three or more times in foster care and often are separated from siblings. The average age of waiting children is 8 years old.
- Last year, 29,471 children turned 18 and left the foster care system without an adoptive family.
- The month of November is a time for raising awareness of the tens of thousands of children who need loving, permanent families. Current foster care adoption statistics:
