Blessings of a Large Family

I am writing reports today for adoptions.  The writing of reports is not my favorite thing I do in my job...and when I am writing for court and have to report all that brought a child into care to begin with, it gets a bit heavy.  So I am taking a break and sharing some reflections on my larger-than-normal family built in some part because others before me wrote such reports!

Let me start with a confession: mothering 9 children can be overwhelming.  Shocker, I know! The laundry never ends. I have to use breathing exercises while I wait for the total at Sam's reminding myself the entire time that God is my provider and He promises we will not go hungry (and we have NEVER gone hungry!).  Sometimes by 5:00, my brain literally hurts from concentrating on conversations with children from 2 to 14 many of which have the word "um" in them 1,895 times.  I have usually changed 4 poopy diapers by 10 am. I could go on, but you get the picture.  I am not always thankful for my blessings, aka: children.

But then there are days like this.  It started out as an escape from insanity! Since we have moved and I work from home, I rarely leave my four walls except to grocery shop, transport kids to/from school and go to church.  That's it.  On this day, I was going a little crazy, so I had the bright idea of loading the youngest four into the wagon and taking a walk to pick up the elementary school kids from school.

It was a great idea....for about 1/2 a mile.  Then I remembered why I had never done this before. We finally made it...even if we were a few minutes late.  But it was on the way home that the reminder came....

I look up to see this! I had not asked her to hold his hand.  She has offered it to him!  He didn't have to be forced to hold her hand. He took it willingly! Because of our family size, our bigger kids have to do things their friends do not...and a lot of times that involves a younger sibling! And in all the grumbling and complaining that sometimes accompanies those tasks, a bond forms that results in moments like this! He offered to pull the wagon.  He waited patiently about 28 times while one child or another decided they wanted to switch from walker to rider and back again.

And these are the moments that make my heart sing and remind my why having a large family truly is a BLESSING! 

And when I look at this grin, well, even the fact that I am starting over....again...at 40....is a BLESSING!  And just in case your wondering, a certain almost one year old who wants to climb out of the wagon, will be content to ride in the cargo hole of said wagon...and will even play peek-a-boo over the cargo hole door!