Children

My word. I swept "my" floors very well today after dinner. And I think they needed it. But they never knew it was coming...and I hardly had a chance to prepare, either.

I was informed on Thursday that a family with 9 children would be coming to visit us for 3 days starting Friday, during which I would host a party for two dear friends. My mother ordered the distribution of guests, and I received the honor of sharing my bedroom with their third child, and the second-oldest daugher.

We played with this family constantly when we lived near them. Their oldest is 5 days older than my sister, but we always found something to do regardless of our ages. We used to make forts in a huge mulch pile at their house, but our play has progressed. This time, we jumped on the trampoline and quoted lines from "The Princess Bride" and washed dishes while discussing "The Importance of Being Earnest."

It was hard to keep their names straight, after a certain point. Of course, I remember Hannah's, Caleb's, Alezah's, Micah's, and Esther's names perfectly fine. I grew up with them. Micah even chewed the legs off of my dollhouse table when he was little! After that it got somewhat fuzzy. Josiah is hard to forget, but his name is so similar to Judah's, that I'd invariably spit out the wrong name. Emma and Ruth Ann were adorable, but if they didn't have such different personalities, then I'm sure I would never have gotten their names right, either. And, of course, the little ones didn't know my name at all. I was just a big playground most of the time :-)

I love this family. Yes, they bicker and have "authority wars" between the oldest and youngest sets of siblings. Yes, their father and mother work hard to keep up with them. But the independence of each child contradicted with their support of each other is beautiful to look at. No family is perfect, but I hope that, some day, my family can model these traits as well.

Our house held up amazingly! I had approximately 20 guests on Saturday while the 10 guests were also here. We stuck the younger children in the basement with a movie, and those who could went ice skating. My guests didn't know about the movie going on downstairs until the soundtrack came wavering up through the floorboards. It was certainly a gift from God to be able to serve these different friends in these different respects.