In my last post I wrote about some of the things my kids "miss out on" because we are a large, transracial adoptive family.

Josh and I try very hard to minimize what our kids have to give up or miss out on and yet it would be naive to think that they were not missing out on anything because of our family size and make up. And yet, I think even more important than what our kids are missing out on, is what they have gained.

Our kids have each other. While they of course bicker at times like any siblings, my kids love each other and are each other's best friends. They are together almost all of the time because they are all so close in age. Even though they are very different in a lot of ways, they are very close. They play together, they curl up together to watch movies, they look at for each other at school, they pray for each other, they help each other, they support and encourage each other, they make each other laugh and they miss each other when one is or more is gone somewhere.

Seeing the strong bonds of love and friendship grow between my kids is one of my biggest blessings, and they will have each other for the rest of their lives.

Our kids have very culturally rich lives. They eat lots of different kids of foods. They know about lots of different places, cultures, holidays, music, etc. They meet lots of people and get to experience a lot of things because of our unique family.

Our kids don't take things for granted like a lot of kids do. They know that there are many kids in the world without parents. They know that there are people living with terrible diseases. They know that there are people living in horrible poverty. Some of them are old enough to remember some of those things. They know that we are very blessed in many ways.

We have tons and tons of quality family time! Our kids have the benefit of having two parents who are very involved with them. I am here to tell you that it is pretty much impossible to ignore 10 kids, and so we do lots of fun, planned things together. We play board games, we watch movies, we do projects, we go on short trips, we play outside, we go for walks, etc. We're often doing something fun together.

I pray every day that we are doing right by our kids, and giving them all that life has to offer and teaching them all that we want them to learn. Sometimes I doubt myself (especially when we face some criticism), but usually, all it takes is to look around and see how happy our kids are, and we know we're doing good.

Sometimes one of the kids goes out of his or her way to let me know we're doing a good job. Yesterday I got an email from Mercy. It read in part, "I want to grow up to be just like you one day and have an awesome family. Maybe I will try up to about 3 kids... not quite 11. But, if it was necessary, I would definitely be up to having 11 kids like you."

It is a pretty great thing to hear from your 12 year-old (who was adopted as an older child) that she wants to be like you when she grows up.

My kids may get a lot from being a part of our large, transracial adoptive family, but they give just as much. I know that we all bless each other's lives, and that is what being a family is all about.