full hands

by the lack of blog posts lately, i'm sure you can tell...

my hand are full.

full of kids and groceries and laundry and bills....

and i hear it all the live long day.

in the grocery store

at the park

at the doctor's office

at the library

while trick or treating...

and pretty much everywhere we go:

"You've got your hands full!"

most of the time i just smile, trying to hide the fact that it bugs me.

i know that people don't mean it in a negative way.

but the looks on their faces when they say it gives away what they're really thinking:

these people are crazy as loons.

those poor parents...how will they survive?

maybe we are a little crazy.

but we actually like it this way.

and we wouldn't change it.

in fact, having a family of six is not the worst thing that could happen to a person.

we chose this life.

no one dumped a pile of kids on us.

we prayed for them.  we asked for them.

 they are our gifts.

we could have chosen more vacations and a fancier house and nicer cars and less to carry.

but we didn't.

there's nothing wrong with small families.  and i can see the benefit.

there's nothing wrong with frequent vacations to awesome places and magnificent houses and cool vehicles.

but there's nothing wrong with big families either.  

and there's nothing wrong with the sacrifices we make to provide our kids with siblings.

its just a choice.

and let's be honest:  whether you have one child or twelve, parenting is hard.

it's true.  our hands are very full.

but if you think our hands are full, you should see our hearts.