We made the news! (December 2014)

In December our local newspaper, The Pantagraph, wrote an article about us.  

Andrew and Karen Beaty of Bloomington pose with eight of their 11 children including Joseph, standing in back, Samuel, Johnmark, Noah and Sarah, all on the couch, and Aaron, Titus and Benjamin, kneeling in front.

BLOOMINGTON — Aaron Beaty, age 8, was doing math homework at the kitchen table with help from his father, as Benjamin, 10, did homework at the kitchen counter; Samuel, 6, played outside; Noah, 4, played with water in the sink; and Titus, 3, drank water directly from the faucet at the kitchen sink.

Joseph Beaty makes laundry chores fun for Titus before helping Noah.

Then Samuel ran into the house and screamed, hit a door and a stool and kicked the door and a laundry basket after his mother, Karen, asked him to check his job chart.

"He's having a meltdown," Karen explained as she hugged Samuel and encouraged him to take deep breaths to calm down.

Meanwhile, Noah said "hot, hot, hot," referring to the water temperature. Sister Sarah, 16, checked the water temperature, discovered it wasn't hot but encouraged him to move to another activity.

Benjamin and Aaron were distracted but returned to their homework. Titus continued to drink from the water faucet.

A few minutes later, Samuel began crying and was calmed down again. Noah and Titus — who had been chasing each other — together climbed up a small, plastic slide in a children's "sensory room."

Joseph helps Titus with his laundry before dinner.

"This isn't going to end well," Sarah said to their father, Andrew. She asked the boys to slide down individually rather than jump off. They obliged.

Karen, wearing a shirt that read "Autism: I See the Potential," said "We don't thrive on perfection. But there's a huge need for foster and adoptive parents."

Andrew and Karen Beaty, who live in Bloomington, have 11 children. Their five elder children are their biological children and their six younger children are adopted.

"We don't like to define 'bio-kids" and 'adopted kids' because, in our hearts, there's no difference in how we love any of them," Karen said.

But all six of their adopted children have special needs, such as autism, disruptive behavior disorder and learning disabilities. In some of the children, special needs were complicated by prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol and abuse and neglect suffered at a young age.

"It's controlled chaos but it's good," Sarah said. "If we hadn't taken these kids in, we would be disobeying what God said to take care of the widows and orphans. The house might be messy but the kids are still here."

Sarah, 16, and Joseph, 20, play with Noah, left, and Titus in the kitchen as the Beaty family finishes chores and prepares for dinner. Andrew and Karen Beaty don't know how they could care for their special needs children without help from their older children.

The Beatys' older children are Caleb, 24, who lives with his wife Carina about a mile from his parents; Hannah, 22, who lives with her husband Jordan in Washington but calls or Skypes two to three times a day; Joseph, 20, a Heartland Community College student who lives in Normal; Johnmark, 18, a Heartland student who lives at home; and Sarah, 16, who is homeschooled and lives at home.

Their adopted children, and their disabilities, are:

• Elizabeth, 14, an eighth-grader who is living in Kemmerer Village in Assumption, a residential treatment facility, as she deals with various mental health issues.
• Benjamin, 10, a fourth-grader at Fox Creek Elementary School — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, developmental delays, learning disabilities and anxiety disorder.
• Aaron, 8, a second-grader at Fox Creek — ADHD and anxiety disorder.
• Samuel, 6, in kindergarten at Fox Creek — autism (though not yet diagnosed), ADHD, sensory processing disorder and sleep disorder.
• Noah, 4, in preschool at Brigham Early Learning Center — autism, sensory processing disorder, feeding disorder, speech delays, seizure disorder and sleep disorder.
• Titus, 3, in preschool at Brigham — autism, sleep disorder, language delays, childhood apraxia of speech, sensory processing disorder, ADHD and disruptive behavior disorder.

Andrew Beaty helps Aaron, 8, with his homework after school on Dec. 2.

Andrew, 47, an ordained Baptist minister, is assistant director of instructional quality for distance learning with Moody Bible Institute. That means he provides online teaching and coaching for Moody professors worldwide — a job that allows him to work from home and pursue a doctorate in education from ISU.

Karen, 46, is a stay-at-home mom.

Sarah holds Noah as he grabs for Karen's hand as the family prepares for their evening meal.

In 2000, while the Beatys were living in South Dakota, Andrew was representing the faith community on a countywide child protection league when he was inspired by a Bible passage to become a foster parent. He and Karen were trained and Elizabeth came to them as a 3-month-old in May 2001.

"We worked for 18 months to 2 years to reunify her with her mother until her mother came to us and asked 'Would you adopt her?'" Karen recalled. They did.

During the next three years, they fostered 20 children, including after they returned to Illinois in 2005. They took in Samuel in January 2009, his newborn brother Noah shortly afterward, Benjamin and his brother Aaron on Christmas Eve 2010 and Titus in 2012.

Karen Beaty of Bloomington loves all her children which include Titus and Noah, who have disabilities. Six of the Beaty's 11 children are adopted and all six have special needs.

But why did the Beatys decide to adopt the five boys?

"The need was huge and we had the skill set and ability to work with the kids," Andrew said.

"Because they needed to see God's love," Karen said.

Because some of the children had been exposed prenatally to drugs and alcohol and had been neglected or abused early in life, living in foster care was not the best choice for them, Karen said. "These boys needed a forever home."

"Some people can handle one kid and that's it," she continued. "There's nothing wrong with that. But God has gifted us. I can handle a lot of kids."

"We have the skill set, the education and the support system," Andrew said.

In addition to help from their older children, the Beatys get help from Andrew's parents, sister and her family who live nearby; from friends at Charis Community Church; from the adoption preservation group at The Baby Fold, and from therapy services at Easter Seals. The boys have about a dozen therapy sessions a week, down from 25 during summer.

Karen Beaty opens a locked case to dispense some of the 60 pills that she gives to her five younger boys each day. Each boy's pill case is marked with his name and color code.

Even with all the support, the Beatys must be organized. Doors and gates are locked because children with autism tend to run or wander; security cameras are up in several rooms so the parents and older children can keep tabs on the younger boys; some of the boys' items — such as backpacks, coats, towels, blankets and laundry baskets — are color-coded; medicines (about 60 pills are dispensed each day) are kept in a locked case with color-coded trays; and a "sensory room" with things like weighted blankets and a "quiet play" pen allow the boys to calm down.

Sarah Beaty helps her dad, Andrew, put the food from the food bank away in the cabinets.

"It's a different lifestyle," Andrew admitted of raising adoptive children with special needs. "But it's doable and their lives will be better. We're obviously not perfect parents and everything doesn't go according to plan. But we keep working on it and, at the end, we come out stronger."

   

The Beaty family of Bloomington is introduced to strangers via cartoon characters on the back of their van.