It's been a while since I have been on here! One of my resolutions this year was to write again. So here I am.
I have 4 kids. 4 boys with enough energy to power a small country...or even a medium sized one. I'm told most people don't have 4 kids. And I want more!
I love my big family! I love people's reactions when they see my crew coming! One of our kids' favorites is getting Sonic. We pull up to the little microphone, and my husband leans out and starts ordering. Inevitably the response is always, without fail, "I'm sorry, did you say 15 corn dogs?!?" I am known at my local grocery store as "the lady who buys all the milk". I was asked early on if I froze it or ran a day care, or what exactly I did with 5 gallons of milk every week.
We are currently building a house....because they don't really make many with a dozen bedrooms. I wanted a double oven...and a double dishwasher! Heck give me two of everything that comes in a kitchen!
Today is laundry day. I was sorting laundry and thought, "I wonder how many pairs of socks this family owns?" That thought was quickly followed by reason, "Not enough! Because the youngest walked into preschool wearing only 1 this morning!"
My husband woke up this morning and almost fell out of bed. He was mumbling about how if someone would have asked him 10 years ago how many people could sleep in a queen sized bed, he never would have said you could get as many as were in his this morning!
I dress my boys alike as much as I can. People always say how cute it is, but here's my secret: it's really only a safety feature! Once when we were headed out of church and almost to the parking lot, someone stopped us and said there was a lost little boy crying in the foyer. He was wearing the same shirt as all of the kids standing around us, and were we maybe missing one? Sure enough we were! And none of my boys have complained since about wearing the same shirt as their brothers!
A couple of weeks ago, an older lady behind me in the check out line at the store commented about my little brood. She sniffed and said" Someone really needs to tell you how that keeps happening." I laughed, because by now I'm fairly used to it. I know most people don't understand why 4 kids isn't "enough" for me. I know that people think I'm a little crazy...ok, a lot crazy. But you see, they weren't there when I was a little girl and played house and dreamed of being a mommy. They weren't there as I sat in a doctor's office and was told that there was a good possibility I might never have any children. They didn't lay awake praying that a child would fill my womb and keep me up at night and puke all over my shirt. They didn't take medications and have weekly blood draws and chart every single little change in body temperature. They didn't know the heartbreaking loss of losing a baby and another one and another one and never knowing what color hair they would have had.
They weren't there to see all four of my boys piled up together last week, laughing so hard the youngest one wet his pants because someone told a joke about boogers. They didn't see my oldest come wrap his arms around me for no reason or my youngest insist I kiss him on his slobbery chocolaty lips and then loudly proclaim that I was his favorite mommy. They don't see 4 little heads nestled on pillows and sleepy little faces waking up in the morning.
Yes, I go to bed exhausted most nights. The amount of laundry soap I go through is crazy and may mean that we have to only pick our smartest two to go to college. I haven't gone to the bathroom alone once in the last 9 years and I can forget about ever having a clean toilet!
But I love it! I was made for this! And I will take as many little people who call me mom as I can possibly get! And even more than that I feel immeasurably blessed to have gone through the "infertility" that I have because I was given an invaluable Little gem. A secret that most people don't fully grasp like I was blessed to. These little people are amazing miracles and I'm daily humbled that I get to be called "mom"! These little lives were formed and crafted and carried to delivery on a prayer! These little whirlwinds very easily could have been just a dream. And aren't we all miracles?? There is only one me on this earth! One me to ever have existed! One you that beat every odd and became a living walking real life miracle! And that my friends is awesome!
