I grew up in a big family.

(Side note: There is an extra person in our family picture. My brother’s friend came to live with us for over a year and earned a place in our family picture)

I loved growing up in a big family. I loved going on long road trips in our RV, hanging out in my older brother’s room, eating huge family meals, “borrowing” my older sister’s clothes (without her permission), and camping on the lake together. It was fun having people all around. Sometimes, having all of those people around, also meant that there was a lot of chaos, fighting, and disorder. Fortunately, I just put on my rose colored glasses, so my memories are mostly good.

I loved my big family so much, that I knew I wanted a big family of my own. At age twelve, I decided to start babysitting. I wanted to hold babies, and play with toddlers. I wanted to make cookies with little kids and read bedtime stories. I loved kids and families and gladly took every babysitting job I could get. I thought tending kids was so much fun, that sometimes I skipped hanging out with my friends, just so I could babysit. It was a perfect job, I could do what I wanted and earn money at the same time.

When I left for college, I decided to study Family Science. I found it fascinating and I set a goal to have a big family of my own. I made sure that the boys I dated knew that I wanted a lot of kids, that weeded out most guys. When I met my husband for the first time, I learned that he was the oldest of eleven kids. He loved his big family, and wanted a lot of kids too. We were a perfect match, so we got married (I left out other major details, but that is in another post).

On our one year anniversary, I went to the hospital to give birth to our first child. He was nice enough to wait an extra hour, so he could be born the following day. Nineteen months later, number two joined the family. Twenty months after that, came number three.

Our family was coming along nicely. I had three cute little boys and I was only 25. My husband was in grad school, working hard in the summers to pay for everything. We were a little overwhelmed, so we decided to take a small break. Baby number four didn’t come along, until 29 months later.

We knew that we couldn’t have a big family without a stable income, so when my husband started his career, we felt like we were in a great position to have more kids. We built a big house in the country and number five came, just 23 months later. As the kids got older, ate more food, and needed more clothing, I started to wonder how many kids I really wanted. I knew our family wasn’t done, so baby number six came, 26 months later.

After number six, I felt pretty busy. Both my husband and I were very organized and clean, so we never felt like we were living in chaos. We made chore charts for the kids, played outside with them, took them to the library, museums and parks. I enjoyed cooking a variety of fun and healthy meals and making quilts for their beds. I was able to keep up on the kids and the house work, while my husband was able to work and support us financially. He had time to take me on dates and to teach the kids how to mow the lawn. It was everything I had ever wanted… I just wasn’t sure if it was enough. My mom had raised seven kids and my mother-in-law had raised eleven. Was six kids enough?

My husband and I constantly talked about our family size. Neither one of us was sure we were done, or wanted more, so we waited… Nearly three years after number six, came number seven. We all love her dearly and we also love knowing that seven is enough.

Most people assume they know why I had a lot of kids. They are wrong. I didn’t have a big family because my religion encouraged big families. I didn’t have a big family because my parents wanted me to. I didn’t have a big family because my husband wanted me to. I didn’t have a big family because I wanted other people to admire me or because I thought it would make me a better person.

I chose to have a big family, because I love kids.

Most people think that we are crazy…

Most days I agree with those people.