Fifteeen-year-old Bethany Dillon isn't your average high school sophomore. She recorded her first CD at twelve—an indie project that ultimately ended up with someone at Sparrow Records, who ended up signing her. Bethany's self-titled debut reveals a songwriting maturity that's more indicative of a young woman in her mid-20s—not someone who isn't yet old enough to drive. That's a sure sign of a solid upbringing for Bethany, who lives with her family in Bellefontaine, Ohio. The Dillons are strong believers, music lovers, and shining examples of Christ's love in action. Bethany's parents, Bill and Tina, have housed dozens of foster kids—including many troubled teens—in their home over the years. They adopted two of those kids, including one with physical and mental challenges. All of those experiences greatly impacted Bethany, who told us how her family life has made her into the young woman—and gifted songwriter—she is today.

So, you're from a musical family?

Bethany Dillon: Yes. Music was always around the house. I kind of started singing when I started to talk. I started writing when I started playing guitar at age ten. My aunt bought me this bright blue guitar, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I just pounded out chords till my fingers would bleed. I thought I was a rock star. Everybody in my family got sick of it because I was so loud.

This was an electric guitar?

Dillon: No, acoustic! But I have this thing where I beat the living daylights out of my guitars. I get so passionate. I break strings. My fingers bleed, and I get really loud. My brother will come back and just pound on the door, and it takes a while for me to even notice he's there. He's like, "People need to, like, sleep in this house!" I'm like, "Sorry!"

How many siblings do you have?

Dillon: Four. My sister Kate is 22, and she's been traveling with me. She's so encouraging and an awesome support. She loves God, and she teaches me so much. Then there's my brother Aaron, who's 20. He's in college right now. And I have two adopted brothers: Ben is 13 and Matt is 15.

Your parents have been bringing foster kids into the home for a long time, right?

Dillon: Yes. They were involved in social work before I was born. They worked in a home for troubled teenage girls, and those girls would come and live with my mom and dad. My parents would take them to church, teach them skills, get them to school, and just kind of be their parents. They stopped doing that after I was born, deciding it wasn't where God wanted them at the time.

But soon kids, mostly teenagers, started coming into our home as foster kids. One by one they'd come, just for a couple of months. There were a lot of kids going in and out of our house when I was very little—mostly troubled kids who just kept going back to the same things. My parents would work with kids, they'd get to a really good place—good grades and they loved God—and then the state would send them back to their home or wherever, and they'd just go back to the same thing. That was hard for my parents.

Your parents sound pretty cool.

Dillon: They are just incredible people. We still get random calls from the kids now that they're grown up and married with their own kids. They call my parents to let them know they made a difference, that they just totally changed their lives.

So, how did the family end up adopting Ben and Matt?

Dillon: We actually had not planned on adopting Ben and Matt. They were three and five when they came, and it was supposed to be for like six weeks, but now they've stayed for about 11 years! When they came to our house, and it was definitely an adjustment. But they complete our family.

You were five when they first came to your home. Do you remember it?

Dillon: I totally remember the first day they came. It was crazy. They were flicking the light switches on and off, and they wanted raisins. They were so cute. Of course they had their rough edges, but they were just sweet little kids.

What rough edges?

Dillon: Matt has some physical deformities and some mental handicaps. When they came, Ben was just three so he could hardly talk. And Matt, because of his challenges, couldn't really talk either. But Ben just kind of took on the role of taking care of Matt. Anything that Matt wanted, Ben would come and let my parents know. And you see that even as they grow older.

When they first came, it wasn't ideal at all, but God has really blessed us with them because they have changed our house. Today, Matt and Ben are both incredible young men of God.

Were things ever so stressful that you thought it was too hard?

Dillon: No, I never thought it was too hard. They were always just great buddies. I played with them. Really it was just meant to be. They fit in our family so well. The first couple of months were rocky. But after that you could just see how God was taking hold of them and releasing them from some things and just how our love was just changing them. So it's not hard at all to have them in our house.

You said Matt had some physical deformities. What type?

Dillon: He has a cleft palate. He's had a couple of surgeries, and it's way better. He's so handsome. And other little things—he has learning disabilities, and kind of a speech problem where it's hard to understand him if you don't know him very well. But socially he's fine. He's the funniest person in our house.

The Dillon clan (L-R): Tina, Matt, Bethany, Aaron, Kate, Ben, Jo Jo, and Bill. (Jo Jo is a boy Kate watches on weekends, but Bethany says he's like family.)

What's been the best thing about having adopted kids in your family?

Dillon: I think it's made us have compassion, especially for people with special needs. Most of that comes from my dad. He's the one who started this whole fostering and adopting thing. He works at an agency that provides services for the mentally handicapped. I remember being five, six, seven, and going to work with my dad and seeing him with these mentally handicapped people in wheelchairs, people just drooling all over themselves, people that the world would feel either really uncomfortable around or just be grossed out by. But my dad—it's the closest thing I've ever seen to Jesus. My dad comes up to them, gives them hugs. My dad loves people, and I think that has rubbed off on all of us kids.

Having Matt and Ben in our home, I think, has just brought us to the place where we don't have to just be around normal people or beautiful people all the time. We can be around everyone, and we've learned how to love, how to really love. I think that has been most beneficial and the biggest blessing on all of our lives.

Have any of these experiences with fostering and adoption turned up in your songwriting?

Dillon: Yes. Not any songs on this record. But I wrote a song for Matt a couple of years ago. And I'm actually thinking of writing a song right now about home and about my family, to just share with people what an awesome thing that God has just placed in my life.

When you're an adult, would you like to work with special needs kids or somehow do the same types of things your parents have done?

Dillon: I'd love to. When I was seven or eight, I remember Mom talking about how Matt would need to have assisted living if he ever lived by himself. And I was just like, hey, I could live with Matt. I've even thought about doing that, if that's what he needs as an adult. I'd love that.

How do you think all of this has prepared you to be a wife and a mom someday?

Dillon: My parents' marriage is so cool. They're not perfect, but they just love each other and they love us kids. They're so invested in us kids, and I want to carry that with me. I just want to be all about my kids and their dreams. I want them to love God and I want them to have these awesome experiences with Jesus, because that's what my parents have done for us. Our house is just a very warm place where anybody can come in and feel like they're the coolest person in the world. I love that about my parents. I think it's given me a good model of what I want my home to be like someday.

For more about this young singer/songwriter, visit our artist page for her, where you'll find a review of her self-titled debut. To listen to sound clips and buy Bethany Dillon's music, visit Christianbook.com.

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