I meet people who confide in me, “I’ve always wanted a large family,” or “If something ever happened to my so and so, I’d have as many children as you have.”

I have mixed feelings about my own family. On the one hand I absolutely love everything about being the mom of 39 children; on the other hand I absolutely hate the dumb questions that come my way.

Who do you think does all the cooking? Do you really think we can afford outside help?

If you want a large family all it takes it the adoption of just one or two sibling groups. In our case I adopted eight siblings groups plus three grandchildren and a lone daughter along the way spread out over twenty years.

I’ve not adopted in three years and will not adopt again. I feel as if my journey has taken a logical progression and part of that onward progress indicated a point in which I felt I should stop. Clear as a bell, after I agreed and was chosen for my last sibling group, I knew I was done and it felt very right to me.

I’d love to see other adoptive parents continue to adopt, especially older sibling groups as that’s where my heart remains. I’d love to learn of other parents who are willing to throw their heart and soul into this very difficult endeavor. The need for committed families remains huge.

I love the life I have now, no more home studies, more children grown than at home, 16 grandchildren already, and enough of my older children have graduated from college and married that I’m now enjoying the parental satisfaction that came with knowing they’d done so well. I remind myself of this often as some of my middle children and younger children are extremely challenging. I love getting older, I love being retired from my years in the public school system, and I really love it now that everyone can dress themselves finally.

But I do remain burdened when thinking about the millions of children worldwide who need families, I want to continue to encourage all of you out there who want to grow your families through adoption to please continue doing so.

I get thrilled now watching other families grow.

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