'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' picks Va. Beach family

VIRGINIA BEACH

As Beverly Hill sat on a neighbor's couch Sunday afternoon, the morning's news began to sink in: She and her husband of a year, and their six adopted daughters, were going to get a new house.

The pork chops they'd eaten the night before were the last meal cooked in the too-small kitchen. The daughters - who range from 9 to 18 - wouldn't have to share one bathroom anymore. The hiccupping wiring and sagging ceiling in the home on Gentry Road would be gone.

And Ty Pennington, the celebrity carpenter dozens of folks outside were screaming for, was across the street walking in her house.

"This is such a blessing," she said. "This is such a blessing."

Hill; her husband, Fred Burdette; the six girls; and plenty of family members learned Sunday morning at their Norfolk church that they were selected for the new home through "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

That was shortly after their pastor called them to stand in front of the congregation and praised them for their community outreach. Then, he said, "I see your future and it's better than today, and here's why." Then Pennington burst through the church doors. Kenisha Hill, 17, said she'll always remember that moment.

"I was super, super excited!"

It was the third time that Beverly Hill had been nominated for the show, and it was always by people who wanted to reward her for years of giving so much to others.

Hill's daughter Bridget Ramos, one of her two adult biological daughters, remembers her mother taking in foster and needy children, no matter how difficult the cases. Hill nurtured children suffering from shaken baby syndrome, those in body casts mending child abuse injuries, and little ones who could eat only through feeding tubes.

"She was always that caring person," Ramos said.

During the years, Hill couldn't let some of them go, and she adopted them. She's had most since they were babies: Shannell, 18; Kenisha, 17; Sam, 15; Kayla, 14; Chy'na, 13; and Shea, 9.

In addition to helping children, Hill often works with her sister and they routinely feed the homeless.

Neighbor Shirley Cherry had strangers trampling through her yard and crowds in her driveway soaking up the scene Sunday afternoon, but she didn't mind it as long as it was for Hill.

"If I had another person to choose for a daughter," said Cherry, who has four grown children, "she would be it."

Cherry said she met Hill when Hill bought the house across the street in 2005, and she was always impressed by the young girls who were always poised and caring. She remembers one of the girls running across the street during a storm and picking up Cherry's trash can after it had toppled over.

"They are so sweet and well-mannered," she said. "And that says something about Beverly's parenting."

Hill and her family will spend the next few days in Beverly Hills, Calif., while workers demolish the home today and volunteers begin building anew during the following 106 hours. The family is expected to return Saturday for the "big reveal."

Cherry said, "She is very deserving of this house."

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com