I have a huge amount of siblings. My oldest brother, Phillip will turn 48 this year. My youngest brother, Daniel just turned 20. There is a 28 year age difference between these two. In 1971 Mom began her quest with the “teenage years”. Finnnnnnalllllly this year, my mother has finished this “pulling my gray hair out” God-given duty! She started with Phillip nearly 35 years ago when he turned 13!

Mom has had 13 babies. (Two of them died in infancy.) Mom has been our Mom for almost half of a century!! (Whew, I’ve only been a Mom for 13 years.) During that near half century she has been busy with the day-to-day non-earth shaking events of caring for a household. She has been pregnant day in and day out every few years, gained a highly developed ability to change diapers, sacrificed sleep, time and again, to stay up with sick children, developed a chef’s ability to cook without measuring from continuously preparing meals, and regularly worked to raise 11 impressionable minds to do right in life. I know, there’s is even more than that, that I don’t have time to talk about right now.
This year is somewhat of a landmark for us. There is a 10 year difference between three of Mom’s children. On Saturday, we had a party for Nancy. Nancy is turning 30 this month. Daniel turned 20 this month. And I will turn 40 this year. That is an interesting 3 decade age difference between us. So I guess these 10 year gaps makes us special. Maybe that means that Mom likes us the most.