Look at those hands. The hands of some of my children: all colors of the rainbow.

My children are my world, my heart; my very reason for existing. If I didn't have my kids, I don't know what I'd be doing in life--probably working in an office or (God forbid) a dead-end job with no room for advancement.

I don't know if I could do that; so I chose to get married, start a family.

It was the best decision I could have ever made.

My name is Claudia Grace Woolbridge. I live with my husband of twenty years, Chuck, in Coral Gables, Florida, and of course, our children.

Now our children weren't born to us. We adopted them. We adopted them from various points in the USA as well as Korea, China, Vietnam, and India. By the miracle of adoption, they are now ours; we love them as if they had been born to us. We love them all unconditionally.

We have six boys and nine girls. They range in age from two on up to 17; they keep us hopping.

Our children are named Christina (Tine) Rose (17, USA); Eric Foster (15, Korea); Ryan Minh (14, Vietnam); Eun-Mi Rochelle (13, Korea); Heath Robert (12, USA); Yance Mitchell (11, USA); Erica Faith (10, India); Georg Michael (10, USA); Heather Louise (8, Vietnam); Wayne Paul (8, USA); Ellen Morgan (7, USA); Elizabeth Rae (7, USA); Praise Marie (6, India); Danielle LeAnn (5, USA); and Josephine Joanne (Jo-Jo; 2, China).

Jo-Jo's our newest child; she came only six months ago, and she's been nothing short of a blessing to all of us. She's well-behaved for a two-year-old, and she has the sweetest personality. She's already learning English, and everything is still new, fresh, and exciting for her: life to her is nothing but a neverending adventure.

As you can imagine, the kids keep us pretty busy. While I'm at home wrangling with the kids, getting them to their games, appointments, and so forth, or running to and from the grocery store (have teenagers you know; they have incredible appetites, as do those younger kids who play sports), my husband works as an auto mechanic. He loves it; been at it going on ten years; he makes darn good money, so we really don't have to worry so much about bills.

So far we've been able to pay them, no problem.

Except for Jo-Jo, the other kids are at school, so for most of the day it's quiet. It's just me and her. I love this quiet time, and I love having Jo-Jo by my side as I do the laundry, make supper, go to the store or my other errands, or watch my soaps on televison (then she has her nose in a picture book, "reading" to me).

I just wish I could have more of these "quiet solitudes", especially on the weekends when the kids are home. Then it's like "Calgon, take me awaaaaaaaaaaaay!" LOL

My husband and I have always wanted a large family; however we couldn't have children, so we turned to adoption. We then ended up with the ragtag bunch we call our children, and life couldn't be more sweeter than it is now.

Oh, by the way, most of our children are healthy, but Jo-Jo does have spina bifida. She was born with it. Jo-Jo's learning how to walk on a wheeled walker; hopefully she'll graduate to crutches soon.  She's our miracle-girl.

All of our children are miracles, but Jo-Jo is our biggest one, even though she's the smallest member of our family.