Lu is a year and some change and this morning I put her in a 24 month onesie.  This girl . . .

Max walked in just as I stood her up and she yelled out a greeting.

“Lu!  We match!”

She jumped into his arms and they took off down the hall chatting and laughing together.  Those two . . .

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We’ve done the math a lot.  There are 10.5 years between them.  When he’s 16, she will be six.  When she’s ten, he’ll be twenty.  I hope they can keep the love they have for each other now alive and well through all the changes they are bound to encounter.

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No one can raise six kids, we are well aware.  But I am more and more aware with each passing day that the greatest gift we have or will ever give our children is their siblings. Do they fight? Absolutely. Are there rivalries and jealousies and hurts of all kinds?  Sure.  But under that and over that and around it all is the gift of the other, the training in charity, the bonds of love.  And that is worth it all.

Man.  This life . . . !

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