Ok, since I started the whole “pesky and rude questions” things I thought I would share some of our family's most memorable experiences in public. I hope you find the humor in them…I have found that you have to laugh sometimes!

These are all true stories…in no particular order. Enjoy!

Josh and I and eight of the kids (all we had at that point), took a family trip to New York last summer. That is where all of my family lives, and most of them hadn’t met most of my kids, so we made the trip. I guess I had been spoiled living in a place where just about everyone knows us, and where there are a lot of other large and adoptive families. We were quite the spectacle in New York! (Looking back, people thought we were a large family when we lived there with our three sons six years ago!)

On the plane on our way out, we were all filing in to our seats. My kids are great travelers and well mannered, so we take them anywhere and everywhere, but most people still panic when they see us coming, especially on airplanes. So we are getting on the plane and getting all sorts of looks, when one guy finally shouts out for half the plane to hear, “Is this a…FAMILY???” and my husband yelled back for everyone to hear, “No, it’s the circus.” I have to say that as we were getting off of the plane we got more compliments than I could count on the kids’ behavior, including one from the guy who made the initial comment. But I have to admit we have times where I somewhat feel like a circus. :)

Same vacation, we were at the beach. We found the perfect acre of sand for all of our stuff, and immediately drew attention. One lady, who had the pleasure of being close to us, was blatantly staring. I ignored her, and tried to busy myself, which wasn’t overly difficult, considering that I was putting sunscreen on eight children. Anyway, when most of the kids had gotten their sunscreen on and were off in the water with Josh, (I think I was down to the baby) she got bold enough to come over. She finally broke the silence and said, “I find it HIGHLY concerning that all of these children are calling you Mom.” My response was, “Yeah, they do that.” Seriously, it turns out she thought we were a day care, and I was having all of these kids call me “Mom” while their moms were at work. IKES.

Same vacation, this time at McDonalds. A woman that worked at McD’s brought all of the kids their little free ice creams. She said how cute they were, etc. and noticed me giving Marcus a tube feeding (he has a g-tube). She started asking questions about him and then asked me “If they were all sick”. I said no, they were “all” fine. (We have some other special needs, but I wasn’t going to explain it to her). So then she says the kicker… “So where do all these children live??” I don’t know if she thought I was a traveling nurse nanny or WHAT, but when I finally got my composure I said, “They live with me and my husband”. Then it took her a minute to get her composure and she finally said, “So they are ALL YOURS? Are they adopted?” At this point I just wanted out ASAP, so I said yes, they are all mine, and several of them are adopted started packing us up. Josh thought it was hysterical though, and often when things get rowdy around here he will say, “Where do all these kids live???”

Well, I better go get dinner on the table. I have plenty more that I’ll share sooner or later. Feel free to share your experiences with us too! More soon. :)