I briefly touched on questions people ask regarding me and my family. They ask things like "How can kids of so many colors be a part of the same family?", "Why did you adopt kids who are so handicapped instead of adopting kids who are healthy?", or "How do you POSSIBLY take care of so many kids; you must be RICH to be able to afford to take care of so many children!".
Or they may ask things like "How can you take care of kids who are so disabled; that would be downright depressing!!", "Don't you have anything better to do than to be adding to your family?", or "Are you a part of a school for the disabled or a youth church group or something?" Or they may ask how we can afford to feed the family members with so many mouths to feed.
Questions like this are commonplace for our family whenever people see our family. For one thing, our family happens to be BIG. VERY big. There are 50 kids in my family, and each and every one of us happens to be adopted. We come from all over the world: there are kids from Africa, Mexico or Central or South America, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Bosnia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and China represented in our family, as well as kids who are from the United States of America, from places like Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Utah, and Arizona. We are a TRUE "International Family". It isn't every day when people see a family of our size; when they do it is bound to bring forth stares, gawks, or comments or questions.
I am going to now list questions that KIDS ask regarding our family. So here goes:
Question #1.) "Where do all of you SLEEP?"
Question #2.) "How many bathrooms do you have in your house for so many people?"
Question #3.) "Do you ever lose anyone when you go someplace?"
Question #4.) "How in the world can you remember everyone's names or when their birthdays are?"
Question #5.) "How do you know what to get everyone for Christmas when you go Christmas shopping? That must be an absolute NIGHTMARE!!"
Question #6.) "Why is your sister Chinese and you are not?"
Question #7.) "Why does your sister use crutches and braces? Is her legs broken or something?"
Question #8.) "Does your little brother Johnny use a wheelchair because he is tired?"
Question #9.) "Do you all ever fight or get on each other's nerves?"
Question #10.) "Why do you have so many brothers and sisters?"
I realize that they are only curious, but here goes; I am going to try to answer each of these questions as best as I possibly can.
1.) "We sleep in our bedrooms; there are enough rooms for all of us; and some of us share a room."
2.) "We have at least 10 bathrooms." (We have a BIG house.)
3.) "Yes, sometimes, we manage to lose somebody when we go someplace; that is why we make sure that they don't wander off, so we have an older, more responsible child to watch over the younger ones."
4.) "We make a list of everyone's birthdays and keep it by the calendar; this way, we don't forget."
5.) "We start our Christmas shopping EARLY--like in August. We also have an idea of what to get everyone for Christmas; this saves us a lot of headache; and the only time we do ANY shopping during the Christmas season is when we get last-minute gifts or specials on Christmas cards or decorations."
6.) "Because she happens to be adopted."
7.) "Because Ronee' has trouble walking, so she needs the crutches and braces to help her. No, her legs are NOT broken; she has arthritis in her joints, which cause her pain and inflammation. This is why she has so much trouble with her being able to walk."
8.) "Johnny uses a wheelchair because he has weak muscles. He DOES get tired easily, so the wheelchair is easier for him. He DOES walk on crutches for shorter trips, though, but he seems to prefer the wheelchair."
9.) "We fight ALL OF THE TIME, but we also can get along when the time calls for it. We can get on each other's nerves, but in the long run it's worth having all of my brothers and sisters because I love them all so much, and I cannot imagine not having any of them!"
10.) "The reason I have so many brothers and sisters is because mommy and daddy wanted a big family, and they wanted kids nobody else wanted; so they adopted all of us."
There. I hope you have a better understanding of my family and why we are the way we are. I hope these answers help you understand what life is like being in a big family, and I hope these answers help.
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