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When I tell people I have seven children there are two phrases that always follow (one a statement and the other a question):

“Wow…that’s a big family!”

“Are they all yours?”

Well…it doesn’t seem like a big family. In fact when even just one of the children are off doing something else…there is an awkward gap in the house. Things seem incredibly quiet and it feels like we are not whole. It may sound strange to many of you…but when I am away from them…I don’t like it…not even for a day.

Sure it is nice to have some alone time to get things done. I use as much of that time that I can. But, there is a major part of my being that is tied up into the other eight people in our family that I have a developed tendency towards being a bit heavy hearted when I am away.

Oh, before I continue…yes they are all my wife’s and mine. Yes she actually gave birth to all of them!

So, the long and short of it is that I have never felt like we have a large family. It never feels too crowded to me…it rarely even seems too loud (except perhaps when they are playing soccer in the house)…primarily because my children are not naturally loud people. We have a house full of soccer players and readers, cooks, delightful human beings and hopefully someday…musicians as well.

I have to tell you…my heart is so full of love that I can’t hardly stand it. When we had our first child, a son, I was so convinced that every bit of love that I had within me was spent on him. So, when I found out we were going to have our second…honestly…I was nervous.

We never know the sex of our children ahead of time so my feelings had nothing to do with that…I just believed that I had a limited amount of love to give out and it was all spent on my first born. It wasn’t until our eldest daughter was born two and a half years after our son that I realized that the spigot hadn’t even been turned up yet.

We have birthed all of our children at home for reasons I will discuss at a later time…but as my wife was laboring in our bedroom I was unsure of how I felt about this baby coming. I had no such doubts during the first birthing process. Of course I had some nervousness about having our first baby at home…but I never questioned my feelings for that baby.

I honestly did not know until she was born how I was going to feel. Well, the birth was slightly challenging because of some fear issues happening in other areas that I am not going to share right now…but as soon as those things were “dealt with” at that time, our daughter came out with a full force of energy. She was so ready to be born at that point.

Anyhow…as soon as she came “flying” through the birth canal and she was physically present there. Every ounce of doubt I had was instantaneously gone. The spigot of love from my heart was turned up higher than I ever could have imagined and it was at that point that I knew that the type of love I was dealing with was  coming from an unending supply.

I never doubted the power of love again and with the birth of each of our children (at home of course) my capacity to love only grew more and more.

So…one of the first things that I would share with the entire world if I could is the incredible love I learned as a result of having all seven of my children. There is not a day that goes by that I am not eternally thankful for them and for the capacity within me to love that is amazingly large.

I figured it out one day when I was thinking about my seven children…it took seven for me to finally realize what it means to love and live loved. I don’t know if you have found that…but if you haven’t…please hang out with me here and I will continue to show you the things I have learned.

There are so many things I really would like and need to share…but I believe I should leave those things for another time. I don’t want to convolute the primary issue of loving and being loved. I believe there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, more important than learning these two sides of love in life. For me it took having seven children to get this far.

How much further I have to go is yet to be seen. I know this one thing to be true though…I have learned things in these areas that have become imbedded within my very being that others look at me in bewilderment and wonder if I am deluded or making this stuff up. I am not making this stuff up…the ability to truly live a life of love is well beyond any imagination I could possibly have.

We will continue this again…until then…

“Live the Adventure!”

I would love to hear from you…please leave a comment or any questions below…