It's been 10 years since our Matthew arrived.  Our second boy.  A second boy is a big deal, you know.  Maybe not in some families where boys seem to flow into the mix easily, but here...we have Christopher, then we had a season of just girl babies arriving.....it was 6 years after him for the first one, then another 2 for the next, and then 3 for the next one....

But patience (and preserverance, Dewey says....funny man) finally gave us another boy after 11 years of pink and ruffles and lace.  Another great-white-hunter-in-the-making.  Another fisherman-deluxe.  Actually, he was our fisherman who fully expected every fish caught to simply live in our swimming pool....not join the freezer.  Oh how that boy cried and protested with his first fish....and Dad could do nothing else but drive him back to the river and let the thing go free.  LOL....quite the test of patience for a fisherman like Dad, let me tell you!  He was thinking dinner....Matthew determined it was just the 'right' thing to do to let the fish go free.

Matthew Allen James -- we couldn't decide on a middle name.  I wanted Allen for Dewey's middle name....he wanted James for his father's middle name.  We did argue a bit over it all, so I said fine.  Dewey left the room to get coffee, grinning over his 'win' like the Cheshire Cat, and I promptly buzzed the nurse and said I had a name for the birth certificate....and graced our son with TWO middle names (boat rocker).  Later I did feel a bit bad for doing it....so 3 babies later, when our KatiAnne arrived, and we again couldn't decide, I blessed her with 2 middle names as well...Kathryn Elizabeth Anne.

Truly, our lives have been blessed with the addition of Matthew.  He is a sensitive, eager boy.  He will lend you a hand no matter what the task ahead, and he is cheerful to do it.  He has a streak of shyness a mile wide at times, though, but it just adds to his wonderful personality.  He is a country boy through and through.  No city living for him.  He was born in the country, raised in the country and he just can't imagine living anywhere else.

He is a John Deere fan.  It really took all he had to not be disappointed a tiny bit when Dad arrived home with a Ford tractor....a BLUE one.  But, a tractor is a tractor in Matthew's eyes, and while a JD would have been better in his estimation, we could always 'fix' this one by simply painting it JD green and yellow.  Always thinking, that boy!

At breakfast this morning he opened one gift (we do joint birthdays here with so many of them -- he and Abbey share a birthday month, so they will celebrate with a family dinner and cake later this month).  His gift was a simple pocket watch.  Nothing fancy, but he needed one he could wear and use daily -- for Christmas he received a 40th Anniversary John Deere collector's watch that he has tried really hard not to use.  One day, when he is married, he will receive the pocket watch his great grandfather used....Dewey has kept his grandfather's, and his father's watches tucked away all this time.

So, Happy Birthday Matthew Allen James.  You have blessed our family in so many ways over the past 10 years.  We cannot count the joy and blessings we have received by the Lord placing you in our family, and we eagerly look ahead to the next 10 years and beyond with you!!

:::Imagine being a parent with a dream to live and serve the Lord as a unified family. Now, imagine that this dream includes placing eight children and your wife in a couple of four-door cars and embarking on a journey of home education, family discipleship, and gospel evangelism that will last more than one million miles. Imagine that, along the way, you collectively memorize the New Testament by heart, live by faith on pennies a day, battle truant officers, sing in hundreds of churches, and, in the process, share the kind of glorious experiences that knit the hearts of parents and children together for a lifetime.

This dream became a reality in the lives of a rare, visionary father named Arnold Pent II and his family of eight very musical children. Together with his wife Persis, Arnold cast a unique vision for discipleship and evangelism which resulted in the Pents earning the title of “the world’s most unusual family.”

Ten P’s in a Pod was compiled from the journals of Arnold Pent III, written when he was age seventeen to nineteen. Originally self-published in 1965, Ten P’s in a Pod became something of an underground classic as Christian readers across the nation began to share by word of mouth with their friends this absolutely unique and inspiring adventure of family vision and gospel evangelism. Though the book ends in the early 1960s, the story of the Pent family continues to the present day, as the children of Arnold Pent II, now grandparents in their own right, continue to build by God’s grace upon the remarkable heritage bequeathed to them by their father and mother, thus making the true legacy of Ten P’s in a Pod one of multi-generational faithfulness and honor.

There is such an incredibly amount of debate going on about the family sizes of folks these days.  Almost every board I've seen is debating the Duggar Family and their chosen life, not to mention throwing in families from days gone by....such as the Arnold Pent II family mentioned above, the Gilbreath family (original Cheaper by the Dozen movies) and other families of size.

Does it seriously chap the minds of people how another family chooses to live?  I mean, sure, everyone is going to have an opinion of either being inspired by these families or being disgraced by them, but does it really make a difference in your day to day life one bit that one family has 17 children and wants more, or that another family only has 2 children and has chosen to stop there?

I don't understand the hubbub over what another family chooses to do.  I have my opinions (hush!  be nice!) and I do share what I believe to be true in Scripture for my family.  If you don't have children, that's your chosen path.  if you have a dozen children, that again is your chosen path. 

We pay our own way here.  We are not living off the State monies out there as has been suggested by folks.  My husband has a strong burden in his heart to provide for his family and that is what he does.  Sure, we could "have more, do more" if I were working (btw, I'm not some idiot sitting here because I cannot get a well-paying job....I could easily work and receive the same pay my husband makes; I've had several jobs in my lifetime, and we have chosen to have me HOME now because we believe that is what Scripture tells us...my first calling is that of a helpmeet to my husband...my second calling is that of mother.)  We have different priorities in our lives than to have this or that just because we want it or want to have it because so-and-so has it.  Our focus isn't on material things.  As they say, you can't take it with you  

There are so many things that any given family does that another might not.  Does it change your mind on watching television if I tell you we don't?  Does it change your mind on listening to the radio if I tell you we most often don't?  How about if we choose to grow our own foods and not buy mass-produced boxed stuff at the grocery store?  Is that going to change what you buy for your family?  We wear dresses only and practice headship veiling....does that change anything in your daily life at all?

Yet all over the message boards and forums out there, people are pounding their fists at the large families in general.  It's ridiculous.  I don't get it, I guess.  I am inspired by large families.  I love to see how they work...what makes them tick by day to day.  I like to see how they budget, how they plan, how they tackle the everyday things like laundry, schooling, meals, etc.  They give me ideas in many areas of my own life.  I look at them as a chance to glean some good things....but many people don't see that, or anything like it at all.  They see what they don't have, or what they can't do, in their own lives.  They may see a family size they are unable to have, either by choice or by design.  They may see a family living on a budget and actually enjoying their lives, where they may feel somehow restricted by a budget and unhappy.

It's all in how you choose to look at something...or someone.  I could probably find things to tear down with the Duggar's and other large families, but that isn't going to change my day to day life any more than praising them up and down for being strong in their convictions will.  It's just a personal choice.