I’ve mentioned a little about how we raise our kids. While the snow is still flying outside (and it is flying, April or not) and I’m still preparing for a busy spring and summer, maybe now is a good time to start a little exposition on why we do what we do.

Conversations on our family might go something like this:

They: “oh, how cute! Is this your first?”

We: “No, he’s our seventh.”

They: stunned silence.

We: “He has six sisters at home, and we have a great time.”

They: ” …seven?”

We: “Yes, just seven. How about you?”

They: “Oh, I have two dogs.”

Bill Cosby used to say of his family, “The reason that we had five children is that we did not want six.” The reason that we had seven children is that we wanted eight and couldn’t quite get there. We wanted each of our children. There are some errors that are so prevalent on the concept of raising a family, that they may earn its own entry.

I’m not sure what people think is mistaken about having a large family. Maybe it’s related to the reasons so many people abandon or eschew marriage, or choose to raise dogs instead of children. Maybe they deal in general misconceptions about the nature of families. Our family is a standing refutation to such notions. I like how Isaiah puts it: “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders … from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion” (Isa. 8:18).

I’m not sure what such people are thinking. Maybe they believe that children are prohibitively expensive to raise. Maybe they think children are impediments to their own pleasure. Maybe they think that Beautiful and I are so abysmally untaught that we just ended up with all these ankle-biters around us, and we live in a shack, dress in rags, and are well deserving of all our misery.

My responses in a nutshell: 1) Expensive? Not necessarily. And what better purpose in spending money on than raising a family? 2) People who think children are impediments to their own pleasure may just need to grow up themselves. I wonder if they have any idea of the happiness that comes from raising a good, solid family. 3) Well, maybe this blog can help deflate such notions–starting with the pictures you see here.