This couple have adopted 25 disabled boys and still they want more...
By Ayshea Buksh, in Los Angeles
(Filed: 07/03/2004)

For Ann Belles and her husband Jim Silcock, their 25 adopted and disabled boys are still not enough. The Californian couple are negotiating their way through the tortuous world of Russian bureaucracy to add another three to their remarkable brood.

Frustrated by the constant obstacles, Miss Belles conducted a phone-in with a government minister on live television and he has now promised to help them rescue the boys from a Russian orphanage. "That was pretty wild," she says. "Now they are calling us heroes over there."

Miss Belles has been destined to build a family like no other since her mother took her to the cinema to see the musical Oliver when she was five years old. "I believed what I saw, that people in England sang and danced on the street," she said. "I told my mum, 'I want to adopt lots of boys'."

A poster of the film now hangs in her office and Miss Belles could not have been truer to her word. Since their marriage in 1998, she and her husband have adopted 25 disabled boys from America and Eastern Europe - children often deemed "unadoptable" by local social services, rejected and abused by their parents, languishing in care homes or passed from foster family to foster family.

The boys have disabilities and health problems that range from autism and mental retardation to cerebral palsy and immune deficiency. Miss Belles says that the only condition she imposes is that they should be children that nobody else will take. Mr Silcock, 41, knows all about the physical challenges many of them face. The then aircraft welder was left a quadraplegic after diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool and breaking his neck in 1987.

The couple met through the internet and, within weeks, he had moved from Florida to live with Miss Belles, 40, in Huntington Beach, 45 miles from Los Angeles. She already had eight foster children, but they began adopting as soon as they were married. The mere logistics of managing the household would defeat most people. Yet life at home with the Silcocks is strikingly organised and orderly - calm even.

Hanging on the fridge door are the week's schedules for swimming, karate, acting classes and therapy. The house is spotless and every drawer and cupboard is labelled. In the garage are hundreds of boxes with food, toys and keepsakes. "I am naturally organised and so is Ann. We have to be, otherwise we'd end up killing each other," Mr Silcock joked. His wife added: "It's like perpetual motion, we've been doing it for so long it's just the lifestyle." Or in the words of 18-year-old Anthony: "This is like a little town. We are always busy."

For Miss Belles and Mr Silcock, their daily routine begins before dawn as she helps her husband to get up, wash, dress and into his wheelchair.

At 6am, four helpers arrive to help get the children ready for school. "They prepare food, get the medication ready, dressing, toileting, bathing. Then the buses start coming at 7.30 and the last child is out of the house by eight,' said Miss Belles.

"By 2pm the boys start arriving home and we have another four people who come in and help with the various activities, such as homework, theatre and sports. We all have dinner together and then it is bedtime."

The running costs are high. Their monthly outgoings are about $36,000 (£20,000), including $15,000 on staffing, $4,000 on food and $12,000 on transport and vehicles. They receive $26,000 in government aid and grants for the American boys, who also qualify for cheap or free medical care, but nothing for the five foreign children.

The discrepancy is made up from donations and from the couple's own income. During school hours, they find time to run their own business, Supported Living Services, which arranges help for disabled adults to remain in their own homes.

When funds still run low, Miss Belles draws on inheritance money - and has at times taken out cash advances on her credit cards.

When she bought her home in the beach town in 1989, it was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. Over the years, the couple have spent $80,000 (£44,000) to extend it to nine bedrooms and five bathrooms. They are now thinking of buying the house next door.

Nurses and social workers are full of praise for the Silcocks, despite the size of the family and their dramatically different racial and national backgrounds. Mr Silcock, who is also diabetic, says that his own wheelchair-bound condition has helped him as a father to the 25. "I can offer the children a positive role model - someone with a disability who is successful, with lots of love care and guidance."

He has appeared in several television shows and is encouraging his children to follow suit. "Acting is great for them. They are not going to be soccer stars but this is something they can be good at," he said. Indeed, Hunter, 16, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, took the "cutest girl" in his class to the school prom after three appearances in Boston Public, a television comedy.

There are pictures all over the house of the 25 children - on holiday, acting, smiling, laughing. Anthony arrived from a foster home two years ago. "It was so boring in that place," he says. "I had so much energy and I would just sit there all day. Here I'm active all the time." He now does weight training at a gym and works at a local science museum.

Alin Traian came from Romania four years ago. "I also have a busy schedule," he said proudly. "In the orphanage they would beat me and I still have the scars. Life is so much much better here."

Motivated by her childhood trip to see Oliver, Miss Belles started fostering children with a friend when she was 19. Her dream was always that one day she would marry and adopt permanently.