Posted on 08/17/2011 11:17:55 AM PDT by NYer
ROCKVILLE, MD, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The astonishing story of a Maryland family with 11 children, ranging in age from 1 to 12, has been featured in a back-to-school piece by the Washington Post Newspaper. The August 10 story chronicles the Kilmer household's day-to-day life and details how they manage to stay lighthearted and have fun while balancing what some might consider an impossibly difficult lifestyle.
Read the Washington Post story here.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), Larry Kilmer, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, said he viewed speaking with the Post about his family as "an opportunity to show that large families can exist and survive in the Washington area."
"It was a chance for others to see that with some sacrifices it can be done," he said. "Despite the fear that 'you cannot survive,' we wanted to show that it is possible."
The article introduces readers to Larry, a high school teacher, and his wife Jen, a stay-at-home mom, as well as children Christina, Joe, Michelle, Julie, Tommy, Steven, Matthew, John Paul, Larry, Rosemary, and Peter, none of whom are twins or triplets.
The feature chronicles the Kilmer family's daily life, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. It notes the many challenges the family faces, but also highlights the many blessings, including the tight friendships shared by the children and the role that the "rock of Faith" plays in the Kilmer household.
"A large family helps to instill in a person many of the strong values and virtues that a society needs in order to survive and continue," Kilmer told LifeSiteNews.com. "In my opinion, the issue of putting others first is at the heart of a large family as you work and exist with other human beings in a close-knit environment."
Commenting on the Washington Post story, Jenn Giroux, founder of Speaking of Motherhood, who is also the mother of a large family, told LSN, "This is an incredible and fair portrayal of this beautiful large family. It is rare to get this perspective from a liberal media outlet."
"Large families have a positive impact on society," Giroux said. "At a time when our national birthrate is dangerously low, large families are producing the future workers that will sustain the elderly in the very near future… They are raising the next generation of Church and political leaders."
"At the heart of large families is the surrender to God’s supreme rights over our lives and an embrace and love of His gift of children," she said. "Unfortunately, this is a foreign and/or unknown concept that has been gradually lost over the last 50 years."
"It requires ‘blind trust’ in God in times of difficulty," Giroux said. "This is a difficult concept for a contracepting society where those today seek to control everything from the day they conceive to sometimes the very sex of their baby."
Read the Washington Post story here.
I used to work at a restaurant that served bacon wrapped bbq scallops and bacon wrapped bbq shrimp at some of their catered events. When there were some left over at the end of the events, I always got to fill up on them. I never got sick of them though. I miss those even more than the smoked salmon platter.
It looks fantastic.
Oooohhh, that looks yumptious!
It looks fantastic.
Unfortunately such a mentality is very familiar to me. My own family. When I was pregnant with my second child, and my first a year or bit more, my mother came to visit me. Her mission was to pressure me to have an abortion. She would not shut up and I had to forcefully push her out the door and lock it.
Well, as the article stated, basil is commonly used in Italian or Thai cooking, but rarely as a weapon. Although I have to say, knowing my husband’s Sicilian step-relations, that its weapons use may be underreported.
Oh my goodness gracious, I never knew that about tilapia. Yeesh. Wish there were sinless pristine food, like the Garden of Eatin’ !! (But I guess they didn’t eat fish, right? Just those clusters of luscious grapes ‘n’ stuff :o)
And right back atcha, My Dearie!
(((HUGS)))
That truly breaks my heart and makes me cry.
An earlier post had assumed the education of the children in the article was being paid for by the taxpayer. Little Jeremiah’s post offered the correct information. Later, another poster, familiar with the school in question, provided specific details about its tuition policies. Thus, no implications, inferences, or personal attacks were needed, simply access to facts.
I don’t have to can or sew or cook or clean or garden or change diapers or hold Francisco, the World’s Most Perfect Baby, while he takes his nap, or shop for crickets, or anything. Servants come in and do all that, while I watch soap operas and eat bonbons and FReep. I’m worse than the idlest of welfare queens, an absolute dreg on society ... redeemed only by my humility, which allows me to admit my utter worthlessness upon teh public interwebs.
Oh, did I mention the country club and the spa ...
Absolutely true and factual and correct and right on!
Tilapia is a little too weird for me.
How heartbreaking. I’m very sorry.
Speaking of Frank, when are we going to see some new photos of the boy? :)
I love scallops wrapped in bacon.
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