The girl scout in me would be disappointed.

Over the past few months, and especially now as our travel dates draw near, I have received a wide array of looks and remarks in response to the fact that we, at age 31, are about to be the mom and dad to 9 kids.

One of the remarks I get a lot is "Oh, my gosh! NINE kids! That's unfathomable! I can't imagine!"

My response to that? "I can't either. Really."

Before I had my first baby (which was far sooner than I had planned!), I was really not scared of being a parent. No, I was not afraid; instead, I was excited about the responsibility for and relationship with a new little life. And besides, everyone has seen others figure out this baby thing. It's doable. I figured, if so-and-so can do this, then I can, too.

Once we got the "one kid thing" down pat, we added a baby girl to our mix. Still not scary to us, because---after all---we've seen others around us with two kids. It's pretty typical, fairly normal, and the American dream, right?

As a "compromise," as Kirk likes to say, we finally added a third child to the clan. Life definitely got crazier at that point, but again, the idea of 3 children is not a foreign concept to most. Everyone knows someone with three kids; it is workable. And pretty normal.

After we bit the adoption bullet and doubled our kid count to six, the reality set in that WOW we have an awesome responsibility here. Still, though, I have at least SEEN people with 6 kids. Not many, no, but at least SOME. I have read up on their blogs and have seen how it works with six. So, pretty soon, SIX kids became the new normal for us. It didn't take much time and now seems so doable---busy, but very doable.

Now, as we stand on the precipice of being parents to NINE kids, all of that "I-know-somewhat-what-to-expect-because-I-see-others-around-us-do-it" is tossed out the window. Sure, we know OF people with 9 kids. We have heard of them through friends. We see them on TLC. We read their books. BUT, up close and personal? As in, "we have friends with 9 kids and it looks very normal to us"? No, that's not the case anymore.

So, if you ask me if we are prepared to have 9 kids, I have to disappoint the girl scout in me and say, "Um, how exactly do you do that?" Sure, logistically we're ready to go as best as we can figure...the van [see DreamCloud below], the color-coded bath towels, the beds, the clothes, the car seats, the chairs around the table (oops, our table won't fit us all). But prepared for the responsibility of 9 kids? I don't know what it even looks like or feels like to be prepared for 9 kids! This, like many risks you take in life, requires a healthy heaping of spontaneity and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pantsness. This requires that you throw the playbook out the window and trust that your on-the-spot calls will suffice.

But, we are ready nonetheless. We are ready to tackle this. Ready for our next venture. Ready to add more to the mix, stir up the pot, and see what comes out of the oven.

Perhaps you can't imagine having 9 kids. Or even 6. Or 3, 2, or even one for that matter. But, it's okay. It's okay to step off that cliff and trust that what God has called you to, though you might have no model right in front of you, will work. It will work because it's His idea. (Lord knows it wasn't ours!)

When I was 17 and preparing to go spend several weeks in Kenya, I kept a card in my Bible that simply said what I have found to be simply true over the years:

The task ahead of you is never as great
as the power behind you.

I'm going to be counting on that. A lot. Perhaps even more than I'll be counting to nine.