THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601120195
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY SUSAN W. SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 197 lines
IN THE PAST three years, 38-year-old Beverly Hill has probably rocked a million miles, made a trillion bottles and changed a zillion diapers.
There's no way to measure the number of hugs and kisses she's bestowed on the button noses and tiny fingers and toes of her 17 babies.
Hill is a foster mother for the Norfolk Department of Social Services. Since 1993, she's clothed, fed, tended and loved the newborns and infants that have been put in her care.
``Sleep is the only thing I've been short of,'' Hill said. ``But I'm not complaining. Thank goodness I've always been a night owl anyway.''
Hill is among a small number of Hampton Roads residents who open their homes to strangers' children.
In Norfolk, there are about 470 children in the foster care system, but only about 100 families providing care.
In Virginia Beach, 189 children are in the foster system, with 100 families providing care. In Chesapeake, there are 175 children, with 70 families offering help.
Most people in Hill's situation wouldn't want such responsibility. She's a single, working mother with two teenage girls, Taneshia, 17, and Bridget, 15. She lives in a townhouse in Virginia Beach and commutes to Chesapeake to work as a nail technician.
``I know what people think when they first meet me,'' said Hill, who sports frequently changing hairstyles, numerous earrings, purple nail polish, a cap with a sunflower slapped on the front and an infectious smile. She's got a sassy, upbeat style.
``They think I'm all flash,'' Hill said. ``But they don't know the real me. I'm a homebody. I work, raise two daughters and take care of babies because I'm needed to do that job.''
Family and friends have always commented on Hill's kindness in caring for others.
``She has a heart of gold,'' said Edgar Mumford, a friend. ``She's always found room for those that needed a place.''
Her foster care experience began three years ago when a friend and Social Services case worker suggested to Hill that she should consider becoming a foster mother.
Hill did not give an immediate answer. She did decide to pray about it, after she discussed the idea with her daughters. With some doubts, she began the paperwork and signed up for the training course required for foster parents.
Brenda Herron, a foster home staff member with the Norfolk Department of Social Services, said it takes just a phone call to start the process.
Prospective foster parents don't have to live in the city where they volunteer. Hill, for example, lives at the Beach but works with Norfolk Social Services.
Case workers interview applicants, answer questions and review local and state guidelines. If that goes smoothly, prospective foster parents fill out an application and undergo criminal records checks, reference checks, a home review and a tuberculosis test. The final step is an eight-week training session.
``I wish we had 1,000 families so we could match a child with the right situation,'' Herron said. ``The greatest need now is for families to take in teens, pregnant girls and young girls with babies.''
Hill has cared mostly for infants.
``The Lord gave me an answer, '' Hill said. ``Because when I got the first call to take in a baby, it was for 7-month-old twins, and I didn't hesitate. Then it was like a bag of potato chips. Once I had the first one, the rest just kept coming.''
Now, with a call from her caseworker and a few background details, Hill gets another child. She usually keeps three or four at one time.
``I can't believe what people do to their own babies,'' Hill said. ``Sometimes they walk away from the hospital, or they go to a party and never come back for their kids. There's worse things, too.''
The little boys and girls who come to live with Hill have been abandoned or neglected, battered, abused, malnourished, and almost always they were unwanted. Hill's family offers them a haven.
Some stay for a week; others stay for as long as 18 months.
Social Services strives to reunite the kids with their real families, with a court-approved plan for fixing the problems that led to the children's removal from their homes. If that's not possible, the kids are sometimes adopted.
Meanwhile, Hill takes in as many as she can.
She has been called on to take in a newborn forgotten at the hospital. She's picked up abandoned twin toddlers, infants suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, a baby brain damaged and permanently blinded from being shaken, drug-addicted babies and babies that have never been loved.
``Now it's nothing for Beverly to pack up three or four babies and head out to do errands,'' said Sheryl Bliley, a friend.
Hill said her mother was the only one surprised.
``I was always such a tomboy that my mother couldn't see me as a mother with my own daughters, much less lots of little babies,'' Hill said. ``But I have lots of family support. The babies are grandchildren and nieces and nephews for as long as they are here.''
Now playpens, swings, rattles, mobiles and toy boxes decorate the dining room and den. Taneshia thinks nothing of soothing a little one while she chats on the phone, and Bridget adjusts a blanket and reaches for a rattle without missing a beat in her conversation.
Hill has dubbed her friend Mumford the ``911 man.'' Whenever there's an emergency need for diapers, formula or a refill on a prescription, she gives him a call.
``He can even burp a baby in a pinch,'' Hill said.
Pictures of all the little ones are on the walls, the mantle and her desk at work. She remembers the details of each - the dates they arrived, bruises, favorite foods, fears, certain smiles, a body cast, a first tooth, eyes that would never see again and always the tears when it was time to go. Family, neighbors and friends come by to add their goodbyes.
To protect the children's confidentiality, Hill gets little background information about the kids.
She and her family come up with nicknames for them.
Pumpkin was a red-headed boy who stayed for 18 months.
``He was our brother,'' Taneshia and Bridget said.
``He toddled after Bridget always calling her by name,'' Hill said. ``We cried for days when he left.''
Buddha was a severely underweight boy who became roly-poly in no time. Hug-a-Bunch would rather cuddle than eat, and Minute Man got his name when Hill exclaimed that he was no bigger than a minute. Bugaboo suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. He screamed and cried for two months. Munchkin, by contrast, never cried. He had already learned in his two months that it didn't do any good.
Now at the Hill home, there's Sweetpea, Munchkin and Little Lady. Little Lady, 2, was scared of everything and everybody when she first arrived. Now she chatters and reaches out.
During the week, Taneshia and Bridget get ready and off to school while their mom takes care of getting the babies and herself ready.
When she gets a new baby, she takes him to work with her until they have adjusted to each other. Later, she has a reliable sitter.
``When I pull into the driveway at night, I honk the horn,'' Hill said. ``Everybody comes out and grabs a baby. If the girls have friends over, they help, too.''
The evening routine is dinner, play, baths, bottles and cuddles before it's time to be tucked in.
The master bedroom is the nursery. Hill's bed is between the cribs, youth beds and a changing station.
``I like to reach out and give a pat. If they wake up frightened, I want them to know I'm here,'' Hill said.
Sunday mornings are the craziest times. Hill said it's like an assembly line of getting ready. Each baby gets passed through breakfast, a bath and the changing station.
``At least one always has to make a repeat visit to the changing station,'' she said.
``No matter how early we get up, we go rushing into church swinging babies and bags,'' Taneshia said.
When the weather is nice, they have strollers and wagons for rides around the block and to the park.
There is a spring picnic where all foster families get together for lots of fun, food, music, games and sharing. Last year, Hill helped organize a benefit dinner to help with foster care needs. When it was time for the Christmas party and Santa needed a helper, Hill was the elf that helped deliver gifts.
Hill's kindness is rubbing off on others.
Tom Payne owns Vette Master, a corvette shop in Newport News. He had almost nothing in common with Hill until he heard about her foster work. Now he wants to help.
``We all talk about things we should do,'' Payne said. ``Here's somebody actually doing something.''
He called Hill and asked her if she needed anything. But she assured him that she already had everything, despite her tight budget. Instead, she offered a list of ten older foster children who could use some extra Christmas help.
Payne spread the word among his friends, and they quickly collected almost $500. Early in December, Hill and Payne met, had lunch and shopped for toys.
``This is a lady who is quietly making a difference. She's 100 percent motivation for me,'' Payne said. ``Now I want to become involved more than just writing a check.''
Hill's one dream is to have a bigger house so she can take in more children.
``This is our next generation. These babies did not ask to be here,'' Hill said. ``They deserve to be loved. They deserve a chance. If more people searched their hearts and thought less of material possessions, they could do so much more. We need so many more open arms.'' MEMO: For information about the Norfolk Department of Social Services' Foster
Care program, call 664-7758. For Information about the Chesapeake Social
Services Bureau's Foster Care Program, call 543-9211. Chesapeake's next
training program for foster parents begins Jan. 22. For Virginia Beach
Social Services' Foster Care-Foster Parent program, call 437-3292.
Virginia Beach's next training program for foster parents begins Jan.
17.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the color cover, by MORT FRYMAN
Beverly Hill feeds the baby she nicknamed ``Munchkin'' while
``Little Girl'' watches. Since 1993, Hill has clothed, fed, tended
and loved the newborns and infants that have been put in her care.
Beverly Hill dresses ``Munchkin,'' one of three foster children in
her home.
Staff photos, including the color cover, by MORT FRYMAN
Beverly Hill feeds the baby she nicknamed ``Munchkin'' while
``Little Lady'' watches. Since 1993, Hill has clothed, fed, tended
and loved the newborns and infants that have been put in her care.
KEYWORDS: FOSTER CHILDREN FOSTER PARENT by CNB