I meet people who tell me they’d love to have a large family which reminds me of a George Eliott quote,

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

Our local high school principal told me today he’s the baby of 11 children, raised in rural Kentucky, taught right by his eight older sisters. This explanation goes a long way towards explaining just how and why he can still tell me that ornery old Big Joe, one of my older sons, was one of his favorite students.

But really I want to ask people, “Are you capable of such extreme personal sacrifices that would be required in the raising of a large family? A large adopted family especially.”

I’ve never bragged that it’s been easy.

But it has been fun and it has been challenging, two requirements I must have in my life for self-satisfaction.

There is a Right Livelihood Movement that I find interesting that describes ethically working for your passion without destroying the planet. Their tenets include

“the belief that each person should follow an occupation consistent with the principles of honest living, treating with respect other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of one’s actions, living lightly on the earth and taking no more than a fair share of its resources.”

Hmm, my Bible tells me the same thing.

I’ve essentially adopted a different measure of wealth. I sure don’t look wealthy, nor dress wealthy. My bus is 1986 and my van and truck were bought used. I don’t have much money at all and what little I have is budgeted to the penny and spent carefully.

Everything I just ate for lunch came out of my garden except the cheese and vinegar; tomorrow to church I’ll wear what I wore last week.

I’ve happily adopted a simpler lifestyle, one in which my silly kids entertain me (when they’re not frustrating me), I measure my wealth by their college degrees, or the businesses they’ve built, by their good marriages and their resulting children.

I scream success when all our bills are paid each month and we’ve eaten well. Victory comes when a child graduates from high school or whatever alternative school that hadn’t yet expelled them. Or when I look at the arrest record on-line and none were my kids. Or when my fifth kid has gotten their first job at McDonalds and has learned to maintain a savings account.

Simplicity appeals to me, my family is my passion, and the sacrifices are all totally worth it.