There is a little man upstairs, overheard on the monitor, chattering himself to sleep. Three other young men are asleep not far away, one in the bed next to him, two in the next room who fell asleep with a Lego magazine between them. Two much taller teens are in the room down the hall, the oldest probably asleep before some of the younger ones. Getting up at 5 a.m. or earlier each day is a good reason not to stay up too late. The girls who are still at home are gradually filtering off to bed, one just off the computer, another probably upstairs on her laptop, one coming in from an evening out, and the oldest is kitty-sitting at some friends' house. Miss Erika has her own cute little place. I like being able to go through the house before I go to bed and count heads, adjust a blanket or two, remove harder or noisy toys from beds before they wake the occupants, who may then just happen to wake their mama! I am blessed. I need to remember that the next time they're all doing something loud and obnoxious at the same time!
There are so many possibilities represented in each of these children. Some wonderful, some frightening. Statistically, with this many people in one family, just think of all the illnesses, accidents, or tragedies that could befall us. And they may. This one thing is constant - God is and He is good.