It’d be nice if I could brag that I started each day with physical exercise but I’d be lying. I get physical exercise all day chasing after 39 kids and 14 grandchildren, cooking around here is aerobic.

I do seek out mental pump-it-ups each morning. I receive John Maxwell’s emails on leadership regularly and I soak them up eagerly.

I’m asked if I ever get discouraged since I seem to put on such a happy face. Sometimes I think the world is determined to slap that silly smile off my face... more

If anyone ever asked me what I believed the most important thing needed in the adoption of older children, I wouldn’t even hesitate to spout off one word.

Attitude.

Attitude is everything.

It’s crushingly hard to maintain a positive attitude at times when one wants to rail at God for even thinking anyone could handle such oppositional, challenging children. But then I always step back with an admonition for myself, “Cindy, what are you thinking? You think God made a mistake?”

And I get back on that horse and... more

Being almost 53 years old, still a country woman, my roosters, two of them, wake me up each morning bright and early. 4:55 a.m. my eyes flew open and thoughts of the day rushed through my brain, pumping me up and propelling me out of bed. The other 25 kids still are snoring, two attic fans whirling and bringing in the night air redolent of honeysuckle and gardenias, both blooming right now. I inhaled deeply, gratified to be a gardener.

People don’t much have attic fans anymore, preferring the rarified air of air conditioners. I can’t tolerate the closed... more

While still piggybacking on Nancy’s post, I have more to say on the subject. I wrote the first one, went outside to weed the raspberries and to think while moderating activities for two dozen children who each give me about four minutes of help in the garden per week.

Sabrina boiled two tea kettles of hot water to pour on the fire ant hills, organic and cheap. I hope PETA isn’t outraged over our cruelty to these ants that leave... more

I thought about Nancy’s post all morning as she described her purpose in parenting.

“I am very driven and very goal oriented. I want to see what I consider to be measurements of success. While I can intellectually wrap my brain around the concept that success might simply be that I kept my child safe for 18 years that is not what I had in mind as my definition of parenting success.”

I can hardly echo more than a big,... more

“Things I never thought I would have to say before becoming a parent, No. 1101: Stop licking the refrigerator!”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution started this Vent section many, many years ago. I greatly prefer laughing to just about anything else and this section cracks me up constantly. Home of such winners as, “Do wind breakers really break wind?” which once caused me to be unable to hold it together for an entire day back when I still worked in the... more

As I read this article on homeless children, its irony was not lost on me. I have worked myself to the bone, providing a home for children, children who once had no clue about where they’d live, or if they’d be able to remain with their siblings.

Yet this once nice home here, before children with severe destructive tendencies moved in, is also the same home that they choose to run away from in anger, unable and unwilling to face their emotional pain and... more

Am I really this annoyingly over-pumped, opinionated, strong-willed mama of 39?

Yes I am, and I’m grateful that I have an outlet for my dreams, goals, plans and visions. This is what I wanted, I strived to be their mama, it’s not glamorous but neither am I. This is my dream, and I willed it and worked it until I had it.

I also dream for 100% success for them all; either college educated, and/or financially successful, happy and content in their lives. I am nowhere near that goal. I have five college graduates... more

With 39 kids calling me, visiting me, or living with me I have a considerable amount of demands placed upon me. I also have more than an unusual amount of joy given to me by these same children.

I read Julie Crowley’s blog about replenishing oneself, and I’m often asked if I get any “me” time. The answer is yes, but I use that time in the gardens or reading late at night. I almost never read fiction anymore, this from a former media specialist,... more

I don’t know if it is an obsession or a deep concentration but as I go about my daily business, my brain whirls with thoughts of my children and how I can help them grow past their issues and problems. They all came to me as older children and I was denied the earliest opportunities for nurturing them. They were denied normal childhoods; trauma laden, abused and neglected instead.

I believe they are very resilient children, most of them at least, deeply desiring to become as normal as possible, if only to fit in better with others.

We as adults... more