Her 9th Baby

My sister had her ninth baby yesterday afternoon.  Ninth.  Honestly, it’s something I can’t even wrap my mind around.  And when I talked to her that evening, she sounded amazing.  Not overwhelmed or exhausted (which I’ve realized is how I sound a lot of the time just trying to get through my normal life) just refreshed and amazing.  Which is quite phenomenal, if you ask me.

First, I thought I’d share a little background for you.  I have two sisters.  Leslie is the oldest and Sarah the youngest.  We are all adopted from South Korea, technically from difference families, but we’ve always very much been family and very much sisters.

Leslie was my first friend.  And even though she would own her first-born, bossy stereotype personality, we very much loved each other and got along quite well when we were little.

Of course, I spent much of my Jr. and Sr. High years being very jealous of her.  Because she was pretty and older and got to do everything first.

 But thankfully, when we grew into adulthood, I came to the realization that my sisters would always be there for me (like my Dad always taught us) and we found our friendship as sisters again.

Leslie always loved babies.  And always dreamed of a big family.  So you can imagine how happy we all were when she gave my parents their first grandchild just over 13 years ago.

And even though she had her own babies, that never stopped her from loving other babies as well.  Namely, mine (and later my sister Sarah’s).  She drove 16 hours out to New York with my parents when I had Christian.  And she loved and loved on him.

Like the crazy awesome sister she is, she and Sarah even threw him a birthday party when we came back to Michigan to visit that year.  By then her hands were full with two of her own, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to reach out and show love to the others babies in her life.

Of course, she was there to love Ellee when she was born as well.  And by then, she even had a little girl of her own to love.

She’d continue to throw birthday parties and even set a pretend one up for Ellee and Anna a few summers ago (it was Anna’s real birthday but they included Ellee).  By that time, she would also have her hands full with seven kids of her own.

If it sounds like I’m bragging about my sister Leslie, it’s because I am.  As we’ve grown older, she truly has ceased to amaze me.  She keeps an immaculate home and cooks nonstop as well.  She homeschool her many kids and has the patience of a saint.

She never minds helping others, particularly her sisters out.  From babysitting to giving free haircuts, she kind of does it all.

She’ll even take time to roll her nieces hair up in pink curlers, you know, just because.

Even though her hands are always quite full with her many children, she’s always taken time to love them all individually and do things to make them feel special.  This includes throwing birthday parties at her beautiful lake home for each one.

You’d think after years of having so many of her own that the whole baby thing would get a little old for her.  But nope.  She was right there when my younger sister Sarah had her fifth, delighted and amazed as much for her sister as she’s been each time she’s had her own.

Also, I’ve never seen a mom who could take ten kids to Sam’s Club (she had our two kids with her as well) and truly not be phased by it one bit.  That in itself deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award, right?

Also, she’s always been terribly photogenic as well.

Yes, it’s been quite the privilege to watch my older sister Leslie raise her beautiful family of ten.

Her and her husband Tim, not only have succeeded in keeping their kids safe, healthy and loved, but they’ve also succeeded in taking on the huge task of raising their family to love Jesus and to serve Him as well.

And I didn’t think it could get any more fantastic than that, but it did.  Because yesterday, my sister Leslie gave birth to her 9th baby.  It would be her seventh boy and he came safely and quickly and we could not have been more delighted for her and her family.

Congratulations Leslie.  I love you and I admire you as well.  You’ve truly been quite remarkable raising your many, many babies.  We are excited to see the great things that God has for your newest little one and we look forward to getting to meet him soon!