We are almost a week past Easter Sunday, so the discovery of this beautiful story was timely. Ryan and Dr. Amy Beethe, an Omaha couple with incredible capacities for service and sacrifice, are a beautiful picture of the power of love, redemption, and laying down one's life for another.
Unfathomable Hearts, is the subject of this week's Feel-Good Friday.
Surrounded by friends and family at his birthday party this week, 10-year-old True Beethe of Omaha, Nebraska, was on cloud nine, but his bliss had not come easy.
Back in 2022, at the age of 5, True needed a heart procedure for a serious congenital heart defect known as hypoplastic right heart syndrome.
He was under the care of social services at the time. On the day of the surgery, for an unknown reason, he was just dropped off at Children's Nebraska, an Omaha children's hospital.
Anesthesiologist Dr. Amy Beethe found him in pre-operative care.
"He was just sitting there all alone," Beethe told CBS News. "No adult with him at all."
True himself told CBS News he had "no idea" why he was alone. His case worker was sick with COVID that day, and True was transferred from a rehab hospital. It was unclear why no one else from social services was able to be with him.
The procedure lasted about seven hours, and through it all, Beethe said she just kept staring at the sweet face of the poor boy who, at that moment, had no mother, father or a stable home life.
That is when Beethe decided that, even though she already had six children, she just had to take in a seventh.
This is what always amazes me about people who have large families: there is always room for one more. Dr. Beethe and her husband Ryan were registered to take in foster children, and three of their children were former fosters who they adopted into their family. So, Dr. Beethe called Ryan to discuss True's situation with him.
"After I dropped True off in recovery, I called my husband and I just said, 'We need to have a talk when we get home. I need you to have an open mind,'" Beethe said.
Ryan Beethe said he was a little hesitant at first.
"But it didn't take long to hear what was needed, and it just felt right," Ryan Beethe said.
More Feel-Goods: Feel-Good Friday: 'National Foster Care Month' Highlights Foster Families and Support for Special Kids
Feel-Good Friday: National Adoption Day 2025 Creates New Hope, Loving Families for Foster Care Youth
True suffers from a rare congenital heart condition, and the catheterization procedure he underwent is but one of many he will have repeated over a number of years in order to keep his heart functioning. Dr. Beethe spoke with True's case worker to better understand his situation. She learned that True had six other siblings, and five of them, including True, were living with a grandmother due to domestic violence. In this type of situation, everyone is stretched thin, so True was not getting proper medication or meals. The lack of a stable home environment greatly lessened True's odds of not just survival, but being a candidate who would be viable for a heart transplant.
Dr. Jason Cole, the pediatric cardiologist over True's care at Children's Hospital of Nebraska, said that True's heart condition "is on the severe end of the spectrum," and that eventually his heart will fail, requiring a transplant.
"Without a successful, loving home life, a patient like True with extraordinarily complex congenital heart disease would not be able to survive," Cole said. "To be even considered as a viable candidate for a heart transplant, you must be in a stable environment with consistent care so that the organ is not rejected."
Which is why the Beethe family not only took him in to ensure he received proper care, but 18 months later, they adopted him into their family.
In 2022, 4-year-old True showed up completely alone for heart surgery at Children’s Nebraska. No family, no one by his side.
— TheRealCherokeeOwl 🦉 (@CherokeeOwl) April 1, 2026
Pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Amy Beethe saw him, was heartbroken, and couldn’t walk away.
She and her husband stepped in, fostered True, and later… pic.twitter.com/Dhq4W7M5bK
In 2022, 4-year-old True showed up completely alone for heart surgery at Children’s Nebraska. No family, no one by his side.
Pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Amy Beethe saw him, was heartbroken, and couldn’t walk away.
She and her husband stepped in, fostered True, and later officially adopted him. They even helped find loving homes for all five of his siblings.
Today, 10-year-old True is thriving in a big, joyful family — proof that one act of compassion can change everything.
But the depth of the Beethes' hearts was yet to be seen. Remember True's other siblings? Well, it gets better for them too.
But it's not how the story ends. Up until he was taken in by the Beethe family, True had been living with five other siblings in an unstable home environment. Amy knew she and Ryan couldn't adopt all of them, so the good doctor decided to do the next best thing.
First, she got her sister and her husband to agree to adopt True's sister TyLynn. Then her sister-in-law and her husband took in True's sister Tyra.
Finally, she got a coworker and her husband to make Tacari and Malia part of their family.
"There was one left, and then I went back to my husband," Amy Beethe said.
That's how True's sister Laney was adopted by the Beethe family, too.
WATCH:
The Beethes have done so much good by not just transforming one life, but the life of an entire family.
Editor's Note: At RedState, it's not all about politics and policy. We like to bring attention to what's good in the world, with columns like "Feel-Good Friday," "Start Your Weekend Right," and "Hoge's Heroes."
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