The two oldest boys were getting into gangs, acting tough and shunning child's play for activity beyond their years.

Their six younger siblings had been neglected and abused, were afraid and lonely, and seemed to be following their brothers' lead.

Nina and Scott Isaacson certainly weren't looking for such a brood when they began searching the Internet to adopt.

They already had adopted nine children, some siblings and some not. They just wanted a child to close the age gap between their 7-year-old and 1-year-old.

But when she saw the faces of the five oldest children from San Antonio looking up at her from the computer screen, Nina Isaacson stopped.

"We saw their pictures and were struck," said the full-time mom from central Utah. "Really, we just knew."

After she made the call to the Texas Department of Human Services, Nina sat back in shock.

There were three more siblings up for adoption, ages 5, 3 and 2. And Nina believes in siblings staying together.

"It still took a lot of talking and praying, but we decided to do it anyway," she said.

"It was sort of like God had played a trick on me."

On Monday, in a courtroom in Provo, it became official. The Isaacsons now have 17 children — Hispanics, Anglos and a mixture of both.

Levi's transformation is a good indicator of what has happened to all eight San Antonians in their new family after just six months.

He had been helping form a street gang in San Antonio, Nina Isaacson said.

Today he is in sports and choir and has a part in Brigham Young University's "The Nutcracker Suite."

Social worker Rosie Quiroz has never been happier at an adoption.

"This family is awesome," she said. "I spent time in their home, and it was an enlightening experience for me. In some ways, I felt like I had walked into a storybook."

Quiroz said caseworkers have to be careful of so-called "collector families" in which adoptive parents take in children to gain workers, the cash supplement that comes with the children, or both.

"This was not that kind of situation," she said.

"They weren't even using the supplement they got for the children. It all went into (bank) accounts for the kids."

The Isaacsons, both 38 now, began adopting when they lived in Chicago, after finding they couldn't have children.

Their first was "a perfect, healthy white infant," now 11-year-old Spencer, Nina Isaacson said, and she decided to stop working and stay home while Scott continued to thrive in the computer software business.

They became foster parents. Michaela, now 12, and Steven, now 14, came to them that way — and stayed.

Next a little girl came as an emergency placement, and was expected to be with them a couple of weeks.

She is Sharon, 16, the couple's oldest child.

Aaron and Sten, both now 7 and not siblings, were private adoptions. Iris, 10, and Misty, 9, were abused and neglected when they joined the group.

Then, a lawyer who had worked with the couple called to say Sten had a baby brother who was available for adoption, and would they be interested?

"I said I guess so, if he's my son's brother, he's my son," she said. So Sam, 1, was home. Then, the eight from Texas came — Levi, 13; Daniel, 12; Ruth, 9; Nina, 8; Isaiah, 7; Michael, 5; Ciela, 3; and Hunter, 2.

The children are in soccer, baseball, football, gymnastics, karate, choir, piano, guitar, dance, cross-country running and more. The two oldest attend high school, the rest go to private school in the morning and are home schooled in the afternoon.

Daniel loves animals, and got an incubator for his birthday from which he hatched 25 duck eggs. When a lamb he cared for died last spring, he sobbed and sobbed, and his adoptive mother sobbed with him, holding him and talking through the pain.

The girls have formed a bond of sisterhood across the board and Isaiah is "so special they wrote a part in for him to play in the Nutcracker," Nina said.

The family is Mormon, and observes Monday family night by praying, talking out problems, playing games and eating snacks together.

Quiroz said it is hard to explain the family dynamics that brought smiles back to the faces of children hardened by life's knocks.

"Levi and Daniel especially were standoffish at first," she said. "But, I think they began to realize this was a family that truly, truly wants them, and that made the difference."

When a family adopts neglected and abused children, it isn't always smooth sailing, Nina Isaacson said. That is why they agonized over whether to adopt the eight children at all.

"When we were up and down about this, and had decided not to do it, Sharon came up to me and said, 'You know this is the right thing to do, and I will be very ashamed of you if you don't do it, because that's not the mom I know and love,'" Nina said, her voice breaking. "Steven said, 'Mom, I can be a good role model.' I have really awesome kids."

Some people can't understand how she does it, but Nina Isaacson said her capacity to love increases with each child.

"It may sound hokey, but I believe we are all God's children and that he really does know us each intimately and loves us," she said. "And that is billions of us. If I am a child of God, I have some of his qualities, and if God can do billions, I can do just 17."

Scott tells his wife he has never been happier, and she understands.

"It's true. When we first started adopting, we were terrified, but we forgot one thing. That was to plan in all the joy and fun and love."

The children, especially Daniel, miss their birth mother. She quit visiting when they were in foster care in San Antonio more than a year ago.

They have three different fathers who have not been in the picture much, Quiroz said.

"It's really important to them to know their mom is OK, and to let her know how they are doing," Nina Isaacson said.

Quiroz said the children's birth mother could contact them through her, by calling 337-3447.

"They are wonderful people," Quiroz said.

"These kids used to be typical of what we see. They couldn't be happy for too long for fear of looking childish. Now, this family is giving these guys their childhood back."

Monday, Oct 25, 1999