So Many Kids part 1- You Have How Many? You Know What Causes That, Right?

I threw out a question on Instagram asking what people might like to know about me. One person asked what it was like raising so many kids with varied personalities. Well, it’s an adventure, that’s for sure! I didn’t start out thinking I was going to have such a large family. Well, that’s not completely true. When I was in school I used to say I was going to have 7 kids. My reasoning was a little wonky I will admit. I grew up the oldest of 6. My dad had 5 kids in his family and my mom had 8. I figured the number 7 was missing so I was going to fill in that gap. Then I got married and we just decided to take it one pregnancy at a time (I mean, there is a history of twins in the family so I wasn’t saying one kid at a time). I guess my husband also had some ideas about the size of family we should have and as anyone with kids knows, once those babies start coming you realize it’s a lot different than you thought it would be to raise them. The nice thing is that unless you are one of those rare people who have like 6 kids at once, then they only come one or two at a time, giving you time to gradually adjust.

I ended up having kids in two “groups”. We had the first 4 in 6 years, then a 3 year break, then the younger 4 in 6 years. For a while we thought we were done at 4. I think God chuckled when we said that. It’s been nice having older kids to help with younger ones. The closest age gap we have is 18 months, with another set of sisters only 19 months apart. Most of the kids are about 2 years apart, though.

Like I said, I’m the oldest of 6 and I’ve always been surrounded by big families. A lot of my cousins also have big families so in my world big families are pretty normal. My mom let me be in charge of the younger kids early on when she would need to run to the store real quick or if she had some other errand to run. Pretty soon I started babysitting for other people and I had a pretty steady gig for a couple of years babysitting for a masseuse. My senior year of high school I taught the 3-4 year old Sunday School class at my church. In college I worked at a daycare for a bit and I loved that job. I just loved kids. At our high school Senior Dinner it was predicted that I would have 20-30 kids a year…as a teacher.

When we go places I do sometimes get strange looks. I don’t get too many people asking me if they are all mine or if I know what causes that. Actually, it’s usually family who asks that last question. One time I had 3 of my older girls plus two friends. As they all got out of our van I had the guy next to me comment that my hands must be full. I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, these were the easy kids. I didn’t need to help any of them unbuckle their car seats, they all were old enough to listen in the store, and they could help grab any groceries that I needed and put them in the basket for me.

When people good-naturedly ask me if I know what causes that, or if they give me some kind of comment about how many we have I just tell them that I think my husband is super hot, or that yes, I know what causes that, why do you think we have so many? Eight kids was never our goal number, though. It just happened and you know what, I would have a dozen kids if I could. My body just couldn’t handle it. My last couple of pregnancies have been rough. However, if the Lord blesses us with more children that don’t come from my womb I wouldn’t complain. Lately I’ve had some serious baby fever. Also, even though we have 8 kids it still doesn’t feel like our house is full. We can gather all the kids together and to me it doesn’t seem like a lot. I don’t know what that means, but I think I could totally handle a few more.