We spent a large part of the 4th of July weekend with my friend, Elaine, and her family. I have blogged about them before.

Elaine has a large family. There are eight adopted children, two biological children, and a couple of grandchildren along with mom and dad. I love spending time with this family because they are so much fun and a happy family.

Friday night we decided to have an impromptu party and Elaine and her family joined us for a cookout. This is where I heard one of the cons of her large family. We were the first family to invite their family to dinner in over three years. Elaine brought enough food to feed an army, despite my protests that we had more than enough food. She said that most people were not prepared for the amount of food that her family eats. We did not open the food that she brought.

It saddened me to think that this wonderful family has not been invited to other people’s homes. I am not the least bit intimidated by having eleven people over for dinner. I used to have forty people for my family Easter lunch, eleven is no big deal. I can imagine there are many larger families who deal with the same issue. They are the ones who end up having every function at their home. They don’t get a chance to relax and enjoy themselves. I am happy to have provided this for them, and we completely enjoyed having them at our home.

The upside to this large family came on Saturday. Elaine’s family invited Hannah and a young woman, Dana, who is here for respite, to spend the night at their house. Hannah loves Elaine’s family and Elaine’s family adores Hannah. Dana had quite a bit of fun with the girls in Elaine’s family. They are much closer in age to Dana than Hannah is. The girls were excited to have her come, and Dana was equally excited to spend time with them.

The girls are all used to doing things as a group, so adding another person was not an issue for them. When we went to pick the girls up on Sunday afternoon, neither one of them was ready to leave. They both enjoyed having children their own age to play with. The fact that they so easily absorb people into their family, to me, is a large plus. In many families there is jealousy and conflict when one child has a friend over, or when a new child is added to the family. Not to say that there is never conflict within this family, but for the most part they do things together with a minimum of conflict.

A large family is not for me, but it certainly works for them, and I am honored to call them my friends.



Photo credit - Kelly L. Killian