According to a demographic study published in the Journal of Population Studies in 1979, LDS women born between 1800 and 1869 averaged 9 live births per woman married at 20, and 6 live births per woman married at 25. LDS families tended to be larger through most of the 20th century, but began to decline toward the latter end. LDS birthrates are still higher, but have followed essentially the same trends as the rest of the country; for me... more

Tonight, I caught a bit of a CNN program which included a panel of three individuals who were weighing in on Angelina Jolie’s plans to adopt a little boy from Viet Nam. Since I missed the beginning, I’m not sure what “qualified” these people to debate Angelina’s family planning, nor do I know what aspects of her adoption they’d discussed prior to my tuning in – nevertheless, I got an earful. One of the panelists questioned how Angelina and Brad’s children could get enough attention when there were “so many” of them, and also commented that their 10-month-old... more

"Name-calling? I didn't mean anything!"

Often young children do not know the meaning of the words they use, but they do know that the words will get a reaction from the victim. Children need to learn that such language can hurt other people, and is as bad as throwing rocks. Children who yell a racist or other hurtful name in anger should be talked to right away. They must learn not to throw objects at or say hurtful words to other children. Children need to understand that they have made a mistake and have hurt someone.... more

As I’ve mulled over the ways I can handle this, I’ve sought help from several sources.

First, I turned to friends with multiracial families. Some offered advice, and some merely offered their sympathies, but all offered the comfort that comes from interacting with those who’ve endured the same sorts of trials.

Second, I turned to the scriptures. Even though I know that my sweet girl is a beloved daughter of God, and equal and deserving and precious in His sight, it is helpful for me to see this Truth in writing as I read the words of the Lord:

Acts... more

I couldn’t write about this yesterday because I was feeling very emotional and far from objective. Today, however, I’m going to tackle this, and hope that it will be of benefit to those of you who have or will encounter racism.

Although as a parent to children of color I expect - and try to be prepared for - racism, this was our first experience with a blatantly racist comment being directed at one of our children. (Far more common are the “what beautiful almond eyes” and “they have such interesting hair” varieties.) Yesterday afternoon, my oldest son Joshua... more

We're home from our trip and I thought I'd sum up our little travelog with some of the experiences we had with people's perceptions of our family. And just for fun, enjoy a photo of us with my paternal grandmother, taken at my in-laws' house. She's the proud grandma to 20 and great-grandma to 53, not counting any "on-the-way" kids. Amazing.

The Good:

Several times during our trip, people stopped us to tell us how impressed they were with our children and how well behaved they were. Our kids certainly aren’t perfect and... more

The park closed shortly thereafter (at 6:00 – I don’t know why!) so we decided to head back over to Disneyland for the remainder of the night. We had grand ideas of finishing out the evening over there, but by the time we got there, hit the Matterhorn and had dinner, we were completely pooped and decided to close the curtains on our Disney experience. We watched a little bit of the parade from afar and did some quick last-minute souvenir shopping. I took Joshua and Zoe to buy some things Joshua had seen earlier over in Tomorrow Land and sent Curtis and the rest of the kids with the B family to wait for the shuttle. We hurried as fast as we could, but just as we were leaving the Disney... more

Since we couldn’t go on the roller coaster, the B family opted to go see a couple of shows in the Bug’s Life area, and we headed off to go on a few rides. The older kids and I went on a smaller roller coaster I can’t remember the name of (something about the streets of London and similar to the Wild Mouse at Lagoon) and it scared the heck out of me. I didn’t like being whipped out over the edge of the track and jerked from side to side, and Zoe hated it as much as I did. We gave Curtis and the boys the rest of our Fast Passes and Zoe, Maizie, Sofie and I decided... more

Today was our one and only day in California Adventure. I know some people recommend two day there, but I honestly don’t think we could have taken another day. Both sets of kids (and parents!) had been reasonably happy and easy-going for the first two days, but on the third day of “amusement,” we could all sense that everyone’s patience was wearing just a tad thinner. We didn’t have any major blow-ups, but we were definitely approaching the limits of what two large families can do in three days! ;)

We started with an early morning ride on Grizzly... more

Later we went to see “Honey I Shrunk the Audience,” which is a 3-D show that includes all sorts of tactile and smell effects during the movie. Sofiie got scared at quite a few parts, but most of the kids really enjoyed it and if nothing else, it was great to get off our feet for a while. My feet were screaming at me! Wendy came prepared with a bag of Advil, so we both popped several over the course of the day to keep ourselves upright. I don’t think I could have made it otherwise!

Later that afternoon and into the evening, we got Fast Passes for Rides we’d missed the day before and wanted to redo. We got Passes for Indiana Jones and then went to see the requisite Tiki Room show,... more