The Normal Beaty Bunch

No, we didn’t adopt another kid over the weekend!

Noah Skyping with Hannah

I was out shopping for a new computer for our younger children to use for their homework and to Skype with their older siblings (and fiancés) who live out of the area.  The salesman tried to convince me I needed a laptop instead of a desktop. When I explained that our “older kids” had laptops and that I was getting something to use for the “younger ones”, I mentioned that we had eleven children.

Baby Brother's first day with the family

“Why in the world would you keep having so many kids?!?!?!”

I then explained that we only had five biological children, but had adopted (well the baby isn’t quite adopted yet) six children, his response immediately changed from one of horror to one of awe.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 .... HOW MANY???

It’s a conversation that we often have in stores, in parking lots, in restaruants, when people see the numerous stick figures on our vehicles, when people ask about our big blue bus, or at various places when people have heard about “The Beaty Bunch”. It’s becoming more common for us to receive phone calls, texts, Facebook messages, emails, and other forms of communication from friends and from friends of friends or even friends of friends of friends, as people have questions and want to find out more about fostering and adopting.

We’ve taught several classes and seminars on the incredible needs for people to foster and adopt children from within the US. As part of an assignment for one of my Ed.D. classes at Illinois State University, I thought it would be good to give people access to some of the teaching materials that we use in our sessions. Please feel free to use the handouts or the PowerPoint from our Connecting Hearts With the Forgotten Conferences if they can help you out…of course, you’ll need to add your own stories =). 

Room for more!

Also, here are a couple of  videos that also point out the huge need for caring for orphans: Why Love Orphans, and Creation Groans.

Home Depot Adventure

For some of you, the thought of adopting a kid into your own family is very overwhelming. This year, we ventured into a new direction and helped a Ukrainian family adopt an Ukrainian child from an orphanage. This is an easy way for you to get involved in solving the global orphan crisis with less personal expense and involvement, but it still makes an incredible difference for that one child. You can find out more about this project at LifeSong’s website.

You can also help locally by working with the Forgotten Initiative and improve the visitation rooms at area agencies that provide care for foster kids.

Another question that we often get asked is about the music videos that we use in our sessions. Here are links to some of our favorites: Children of God, All I Really Want for Christmas is a Family, and Keep Changing theWorld.

The Big Blue Bus on vacation

shopping at Sam's Club