How Many is Too Many?

This week the Duggar family had their 17th baby! I am simply amazed at that number. In numerous article covering this miraculous addition, I read that Mrs. Duggar has spent 10.5 years of her life pregnant. I'm on my 7th pregnancy, 6th baby (possibly add 7th to that, they found an extra sac in there during an 8 week ultrasound). When I add it up, I've spent 4.6 years of my life pregnant. I have a long ways to go if I wanted to catch up to the Duggars, not that I'm intending to.

I am bothered by some of the comments I read to these articles and various boards that bring the subject up. Many think they are crazy, others make off color remarks about their way of life and choice to have that many children. To me, having a large family, it is a very personal and intimate thing for a couple to decide to have 1 child or 4, or even 10 or 17. For someone with 17 kids, 6 kids would probably seem like a vacation to raise. Even at the possibility of having 7 children, to me, it still does not seem like a lot. As a friend of mine said, it's still a single digit!

It has seemed a very worldly opinion for people to balk at having 17 children. All they tend to think about is money: Is it my tax dollars supporting that family? Obviously, they need some kind of state help to feed that many kids. How much is their food bill? Don't they advocate birth control? Incidentally, many insurance companies don't cover the cost of birth control, although they will cover the cost of ED drugs. Did any one stop to consider the spiritual aspect of the choice to have a lot of kids? Or even a personal choice: they both love kids, so they want to have a lot of kids? For some people I'm sure that having a large family was not an intentional decision. Accidents happen. As my dad once so bluntly told me, not being able to afford any kind of birth control usually results in another pregnancy because they don't have anything else to do. From my own personal experience, I have known that there are more children for us by dreams, feelings, answers to prayers and at times, before the previous pregnancy was even over. I have other friends who decided on a having a large family and so their goal is to have as a many children as possible, again with a spiritual commonality that God will provide.

I wanted to share this with you, although you have probably seen it on the internet and other places of records and trivia.
"The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia. Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy."
Her years of child bearing spanned 40 years! For all of them but two to survive infancy, in the 1700's is a miracle!

Other Mother Trivia and facts can be found here:
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/momtrivia.html

I can't answer the question "How Many is Too Many?" simply because I just don't know. I know my love for children has not run out for each one added to our family, that there is only more love to give and share. I know that no matter how destitute or well off we are, having a faith in God has provided many blessings for us and our children. While some of my kids have been challenging for me, I have learned patience, kindness, and appreciation for differences. I have learned different coping methods. I have learned different tactics for correcting unwanted behavior. I have learned to tell stories to keep their interest, teach them and fight off boredom. If I didn't have all these kids, I don't know what I would be the person I am today, which has been a molding and changing process and sometimes a trying and painful process. I could not, can not, look back at other times in my life and think about what it would be like if I didn't have children, or even a certain child. They have changed my life so much for the better.