A Real Life Cheaper by the Dozen

Time for another installment of answers from the Ask Me Anything questions.  This time it’s all about my family.  It was amazing to me how many of the newer readers didn’t know that I have eleven brothers and sisters and how many of my older readers had questions about my family.  Of course, I try to be careful when I blog about others so I won’t be able to fully answer all your questions but I’ll do my best!

Anonymous asked:  Can you share your siblings’ adoption stories?


I wrote a few blog posts chronicling the adoption stories of my siblings a while back and I’d love it if you’d like to go back and read them…

1.  Rebekah and Deborah
2.  John
3.  Andrew and Dinah
4.  Julia, Philip, Nathanael, and Leah

Another Anonymous asked:  I am fascinated by your family’s story – I’d like to hear occasional updates on how your brothers and sisters are doing!


This is a hard one to answer while still being respectful of my brothers and sisters.  Being honest, there are issues some of my siblings have in relation to their adoptions and lives before coming to our family that are impacting them still to this day.  I don’t want to sound like adoption is easy or that my siblings don’t have emotional baggage but that’s also not for me to share since those are their stories.  That being said, I’d love to let you know what they’re all doing with their lives right now…  With the knowledge that I’m only sharing the good things and the aspects of their lives that they would be comfortable being made public.

1.  Peter has been married to Megan for two and a half years and their expecting their first little one (surprise gender!) in about a month.  Peter’s a elementary school teacher in Western Washington and Megan is involved in all sorts of music (she even sang with Josh Groban while he was on tour!!!)

2.  Aaron has been married to Katie for a year and a half.  They just recently moved to Western Washington because Katie got a great nursing job.  Aaron’s currently looking for work and they’re loving that they live near Peter and Megan again!

3.  Rebekah (and her three kids!) live in Wisconsin.  She recently began a job as a TSA agent!  We definitely don’t see her or her kiddos as much as we’d like!

4.  John lives in Nevada and works in a store on a military base.  Here’s another sibling that we don’t see enough.  Seriously they all need to move back to the PNW.

5.  Deborah and her boyfriend, Nate, live in Spokane and are expecting little Matthew any day now!!!!!  Deborah’s going to be a SAHM and Nate has a great job at a water treatment plant (or something like that…  Sorry I don’t know exactly what your job is, Nate!!!)

6.  Julia lives in Georgia and is modeling and waitressing down there.  Once again, why do my siblings move away????  It’s real dumb.

7.  Andrew is finishing his Sophomore year of college in Washington.  He was a cross country star in high school (think top ten in the nation) and got a GREAT scholarship for school!  Unfortunately, he got injured at the end of last year and had to have surgery.  He’s recovering well but hasn’t been able to run as well as he used to.  He’s currently studying nursing but is thinking about moving his focus to sports medicine.

8.  Philip is a Senior in high school.  He’s in the Developmentally Learning Challenged program so he’ll be able to stay at the high school until he’s 21 in a work training program.  He’s currently doing an unpaid work training program at Albertsons but he’s interviewing for a paid job with the Spokane Indians this year!  He’s such an awesome guy I’d be surprised if he didn’t get it!  He’s another great runner and loves being a part of the high school’s cross country and track teams.

9.  Nathanael is a Sophomore in high school.  He just got his first job being a ride attendant at a park downtown!  He’s another great athlete but he focuses more on soccer than running.  (Stinking kids being good at sports!)

10.  Leah is in sixth grade.  She and Dinah are homeschooled and they really love it.  Leah is a GREAT little hip hop/jazz dancer and has such great rhythm.  Leah is growing into such a great young lady and it always makes me sad to see her and realize that she’s not my baby sister anymore.

11.  Dinah is also in sixth grade.  She and Leah are best friends!  Dinah is SUCH a creative writer and has one a few writing competitions.  I don’t know how she comes up with her creative ideas and her expressive way of writing!  Dinah’s also an incredible little ballerina and has been cast in Spokane’s professional Nutcracker performances for the past three years.  This past year she was cast as the lead angel!

Breenah asked:  Can you tell me how you haven’t gone crazy with 11 siblings?


Oh Breenah!  You don’t get it.  My siblings are WHY I’m crazy.  😉  But, being real, having so many siblings can be tough!  It’s pretty easy now since I don’t live at home and just get to enjoy my time visiting with my brothers and sisters but that wasn’t always the case.  When our house was the fullest there were 10 of us kids living at home.  (By the time the last three adoptions happened my older brothers were already in college)  That’s a FULL house!  Thankfully, my parents’ house have six bedrooms so there were plenty of places to put the siblings who got along and the ones who didn’t.  With as many strong personalities as there are in my family you better believe there were siblings that didn’t get along well.  (Of course I got along with ALL my siblings ALL the time…  cough*NOT*cough)  I’m so thankful to my parents that they knew that I, as an introvert, needed my own space and, for most of my Jr. High and High School years, allowed me to have my own room.  (Thanks again, mom and dad!)  I don’t know what I would have done if I had needed to share…  Gone even more crazy than I am, I’m sure!

Ashley asked:  As an adoptive mama I would love to know more about your siblings adoptions!! And as a mama who wants at least 4 kiddos tell me more about growing up with 11 siblings!!


See the first question regarding my siblings adoptions.  And regarding being one of 12…  I don’t know any different and I LOVE it!  As loud, crazy, difficult, and insane being in such a large family can be, I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Sure, it makes some things difficult…  There was no money for college or a wedding budget, I didn’t get my own car, I often was roped into babysitting…  But it all was 100% worth it!  When Nate and I discuss how many kids we’re going to have I can’t even imagine having fewer than four and, if Nate lets us, I’d probably actually want six.  (Some of those being adopted)  I’m totally and completely for big families!

BONUS QUESTION:


Anonymous asked:  Who is your favorite brother and why is he so awesome?


Well, since Peter is the only brother who reads my blog…  I’m going to have to say that Nathanael is my favorite…  Or maybe John…  Or Aaron…  Or Andrew…  Or Philip…  And they’re awesome because they’re NOT PETER!