Entry for January 18, 2007 ~ Family, pt. 1

Family is everything.
I should know ~ I have one. I have a wonderful, large, noisy, funny, busy family.
My family is my waking, my doing, my dreaming...my family is my life.
I started with my husband nearly 30 years ago. When we were married not two years, we had our first-born son. He was followed by our first daughter, then just over a year later, our twin girls. So, in less than five years, our family size was tripled!
In quick succession after all that, came four more ~ three more girls, finally, another son.
We lost two along the way, but they are in Heaven now, with Our dear Lord and His holy Mother...safely awaiting our arrival home.
I have kept mostly silent about all the things we have had to endure over the years, as I didn't want to show a bad example to my children. But, having a large family in this day and age hasn't always been as easy as it looks...LOL!
We have had remarks and stares, not only from family, who should have known better (hello, have we met? do you even know me??) and from strangers, who 1)had no stake whatsoever in this family at all and 2)really couldn't care less except for the fact that they liked to put their noses where they didn't belong.
My husband Michael is a wonderful man. He's funny. He's a good husband and provider. He keeps close to his children, especially now that he is home all day, semi-retired. We spend our days together, and whether we are in the same room or not, we are connected.
Our sons and daughters are all leading busy lives, Paul married now and on his own, the rest still here, but moving with irresistible force toward that day when they, too, will leave the nest.
A family this large can always boast of never having had a dull moment, either. There have been times when I've wanted to tear my hair out, or perhaps theirs?? And there have been plenty of days when I thought that if the night didn't come quickly, I would burst with the busy-ness of it all...
But I have to say that I have loved every moment of it.
And I would not change a thing.