James and Deborah Beebe are a self-described mixed-race family who liked the area so much that they moved here with their seven adopted children.

A trip came up for Jim through work. He needed to travel to Huntsville to visit Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant for a training audit. “When I heard he was going to Alabama, I said, I’m going.”

Deborah began watching the Eternal Word Television Network when she went to Florida to pick up their first adopted child, Adrian. For eight days, she was stuck in a hotel room. “It was the only thing that got me through that and phone calls to my husband,” said Deborah. When she returned home, Deborah told Jim, “We’ve got to get a satellite. I have to watch EWTN.”

The international network was founded by Mother Angelica and is based in Birmingham, and her monastery and Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament is in Hanceville.

When the couple traveled to Alabama, they stayed in Decatur and ended up getting two rental cars. Deborah would travel to Birmingham sometimes twice daily to visit the network. “I just started driving all over. I just fell in love with Alabama. It’s so much prettier here. It’s green and there’s water,” said Deborah. And it’s much cheaper to live here than in California.

Deborah said she spent a lot of time driving around in Cullman County. “People are friendly here. We’re a mixed-race family. That was the test, going around and seeing how we were reacted to. It didn’t seem to be a problem,” said Deborah.

The couple has two natural-born children: Ilan (22) and Amita “Amy” (20).

“They are both Hebrew names,” said James. “I get the boy’s names. I do a lot of research. I spent a lot of time on it. It’s not just arbitrary.”

The couple married in the Roman Catholic Church. “We have been active in the Church ever since we married,” said James. “We had a great parish priest.” They have been married 24 years.

James was a chief petty officer in the Navy. He worked as an electronics technician at a Navy nuclear reactor program. He got out after nine years and then worked at San Orofre Nuclear facility for 23 years where he did a variety of jobs: instrument technician, supervisor, general foreman, performed engineering tasks, was an instructor, was in management and radiation instrumentation for several years.

After eight years at the nuclear facility, James re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserves just two days before Desert Storm in Oct. of 1990. His commitment involved one weekend a month and two weeks training in the summer. He was with a special warfare unit for six years and a hovercraft unit for eight years. “The hovercraft units are landing crafts that float on top of the ocean or land,” said James. “They are amphibious vehicles.” James was a command chief at a facility that maintained and operated the hovercrafts when he retired in 2004.

Deborah is a full-time mom and a registered nurse. “I have worked off and on, not real steady. I take up the slack at home because Jim is gone so much.”

James said, “She’s a well-qualified mom, and I’m an overachiever.”

Deborah home schooled both of her natural children.

“My oldest went to kindergarten and half of first grade. My daughter went to preschool. Ilan was very intelligent. They couldn’t keep him stimulated enough in the classroom. He graduated at 15 and started junior college. He has two associate degrees and then went into the Navy. He is also in the nuclear program assigned to a submarine and assigned to San Diego, the same place where I met Jim,” said Deborah.

“Amy is in California. She graduated at 16 and went to college. She has two Associate degrees, one in business and the other in English. She is one and a half years away from a Bachelor’s degree in Business. Amy works as an Office Administrator for a wholesale distributor. She’s handling it really well at 20. She’s up for a raise,” said Deborah. Amy enjoys hiking in the Sierra Mountains, according to Jim. “She’s independent and comfortable with it.”

After the couple had two children, Deborah was having trouble conceiving another child. “I just wasn’t done having kids and knew we were called to have a large family, so I tried to talk Jim into adopting. We had close friends who had adopted.”

Through private adoption, the couple brought Adrien into their family, “one of our 8-year-olds,” said Deborah.

Three years later, the couple adopted a second baby.

“We were told the baby was perfectly healthy. He tested positive for cocaine and barbiturates at birth. He had an early history of seizure disorder,” said Deborah.

“We almost lost him three times,” said Jim. Colin who is their 5 year old was diagnosed with ‘failure to thrive,’ said Deborah.

“At that time, we didn’t have to take him, but we were already spiritually connected to him,” said Jim. “We had an agreement with the adoption agency that we wanted a healthy baby but then we found out about his exposure to drugs. They (the agency) didn’t want to put that burden on us,” said Jim.

Deborah was concerned about medical expenses because with their first adoption, the health insurance did not kick in right away. But by the time Colin arrived, Jim’s employer changed their policy on adoptive children, and health insurance was provided from day one.

Colin was going to need special care. He had focal seizures. “His seizure disorder went through several phases. He had grand mal seizures for several months and was on phenobarbital,” said Deborah. Deborah began adoptive nursing since Colin had dairy allergies. “It helped him with reflux problems; his sucking improved and his overall health. He began sleeping better,” said Deborah. “That seemed to be what he needed,” said Jim.

The couple initially thought they might adopt two or three children but then something happened.

“We really felt God was calling us to adopt a large sibling group,” said Deborah. The couple went again to a private agency in California. They began looking through stacks and stacks of books of foster children.

“It was agonizing,” said Jim. “There are so many beautiful kids that need to be adopted.”

Deborah made an unusual discovery. She found two boys who were brothers, and 25 pages later found two girls who were part of the same sibling group. The children were in two different foster homes and therefore listed separately rather than together, according to Deborah.

They were also drug babies. They had been in foster care, and there was some abuse, said Deborah. “The parental rights were already relinquished, so it was just a matter of going and taking custody,” said Deborah. The kids were 6, 5, 4 and 3 at the time of the adoption.

Today, Maryah is 8 and celebrated her birthday on Thursday. “We wanted a Marian name,” said Deborah. Roseline is 6, Davon, 8, and Tyrone, 9.

“It was a killer at first. Jim would come home, and I would be in tears most days. Crying, I would tell Jim, I can’t do this,” said Deborah. “There were behavioral problems, learning disabilities. The kids hadn’t been socialized appropriately. They suffered from nightmares and used foul language.”

There were angry outbursts and tantrums, said Jim.

“I never saw tantrums like that, holes in the wall and screaming bloody murder. Thankfully, we had a wonderful support system with friends,” said Deborah.

Jim said, “Our older children were still at home. We could not have done it without them.”

After the first year, the couple began seeing some progress but they were in for a surprise. The sibling group’s mother was pregnant again. It was the father’s sister who tipped off the Beebe’s social worker. Josephine was discharged right into foster care, and the Beebe’s adopted her. “She was a drug baby,” said Deborah.

What happened to the Beebe’s is “life changing. That is one of the reasons we came here,” said Jim.

“We needed to get out of the rat race to make this right,” said Deborah.

The Beebe’s hope is that their story will inspire others to open their hearts to take in some foster kids. “Adopt just one child out of the foster system,” said Deborah. If churches would get involved, maybe a half dozen members would adopt children.

Jim said that sometimes individuals tend to be self-centered and couples too. If they would adopt a child, they would get away from self absorption and sacrifice for their children.

“If we adopt again, my prayer would be to add an African child, an older child, for my children’s benefit,” said Deborah.