My ex wife divorced me in 1993, we had 4 daughters ages 4-14, my wife Donna had 1 older daughter 13, and twin boys, 10. We married in Feb 1994, one of the happiest days of my life. We had no desire to have any more children, 7 was a nut-house, (we had 3 10 year olds) We had all the normal troubles that blended families have, and several more for fun.
In the spring of 1997, we had an "early miscarriage", it was physically and emotionally very painful for my wife, rather heartbreaking, after losing that baby, we decided we would have another baby, and the Lord Blessed us with another set of twins. We specifically declined any genetic testing as Pro Lifers, and didn't ask their sex, even though we had many Sonagrams. In April of 1998 were were blessed with twin Daughters, Mollie and Baxie. The first 6 months we were rather certain we were going to die from lack of sleep and stress of caring for two very beautiful daughters, they were colicky, and didn't sleep well, and we were just exhausted.
so long story short, we have nine living children, one we know is in heaven with the Lord, and Donna's step son from her first marriage is part of our family and included with his wife and little girl in our family gatherings, so yes its a little crazy at our house, though I have a small army if I were to choose to "mobilize"....
Our son Jed invited one of his friends, who was in the military and later a civilian contractor, who is married to the sweetest girl from Chile, and have a gorgeous little girl. They also joined us yesterday for our large family meal, my wife loves the girl, and even more their beautiful daughter. Yes, it was Chaotic, and yes it was wall to wall children, my little brother Dan, his wife, two daughters and a son also joined us, so yes it is busy, and yes we do have to depend upon the Lord to meet all our needs, according to His riches in Glory! Yes we are blessed.