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Children's Home Society
Strengthening Families

Bobbie and Howard Hall

Bobbie Hall thought she never wanted to be a mother, that is, until she reached the age of 25. But soon after deciding she was ready, she found she was unable to conceive. Desperately wanting a child, Bobbie Hall turned to the Children's Home Society of Florida, a statewide agency devoted to providing safe, stable and loving homes to children.

She and her husband started the process in Jacksonville, where they were living at the time, but soon after moved to Gainesville. On October 29, 1959, Bobbie received a call that a baby boy had been born in a St. Petersburg hospital and was asked if she and her husband wanted to travel to meet him. Bobbie and her husband immediately fell in love with the baby. The next day Children's Home Society called to ask if they wanted to take their new son home and adopt him.

"He was this huge beautiful baby, and we were incredibly excited, but we had nothing ready," Bobbie said. In need of help, Bobbie called her mother who helped locate all the necessary supplies.

Like any first time mother, Bobbie said that although the experience was one of the happiest in her life, it was also the most traumatic experience in her life.

"I am such a perfectionist and had to learn that with children, perfection isn’t the best goal to seek," Bobbie said.

When Brett was two and a half, Bobbie divorced Brett’s father, but Bobbie remained strong and true to raising her dream child independently for 11 years.

"We had such a close relationship," Bobbie said. "It was quite an adjustment for the first two years. But it was a wonderful experience."

Then when Brett was 13, Bobbie married Howard Hall, a local Gainesville business owner, and Brett and Howard quickly developed a wonderful father-son relationship.

Today, Brett lives in Daytona Beach, where he is an active citizen and has a career in food services. An avid traveler and surfer, Brett gets home regularly to visit parents, Bobbie and Howard.

"It’s amazing the number of people that Children’s Home Society has helped," Bobbie said. Brett is one of 30,000 children that Children's Home Society has placed in adoptive homes, since it’s founding in 1902.

Today, 100 years old, Children's Home Society continues to strive to keep children safe, whether it is through adoption, foster care, parent education, counseling, supervised visitation, or any of its other child abuse prevention and intervention services. There are more than 90 children in North Central Florida looking for permanent adoptive families each year, and more than 700 children looking for temporary families. For more information on how you can become an adoptive parent, like Bobbie, or for more information on volunteering or foster care, please call (352) 334-0955.