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.
You guessed wrong. According to the WaPo story ...
During the school year, Jen’s days begin at 5 a.m. She lays out the children’s uniforms, makes lunches, then attends 6:30 Mass at the Shrine at St. Jude.After Mass, Larry and the oldest boys leave for school.
The remaining school-age children get dressed, eat breakfast, grab lunches and walk to school. The youngest stay home with Mom, who finishes up the morning routine: cleaning from breakfast, making beds and putting in a load of laundry. This fall, two of the three youngest will start preschool, adding a little wrinkle to the established morning routine.
Looks like they go to Catholic school, lunch bags in hand.
Excellent post, TC.
>>What EXACTLY should a poor woman do if she gets pregnant? <<
Is she married?
If I’m wrong, and this family is not sponsored by the taxpayers, I’ll be glad to hear it, and gladly change my opinion. However, I doubt that I’m wrong on this one.
No guesswork involved as the answer is right there in the WaPo article.
To supplement his teaching income during the summer, Larry runs week-long sports camps and paints houses.Jen is careful about spending, cuts coupons and find ways to work with what they have.
“I recently learned [to make] soup,” she says. “The kids eat veggies and I can stretch my meat.”
The couple say the generosity of others also helps them get by. “We’ll get bags of clothing on the doorstep, and I don’t even know who they’re from,” says Jen.
People have given the family clothes, furniture, meals and grocery gift cards without being asked, says Larry.
“Every year it happens more and more,” he says. “And their generosity allows us to be generous to others.”
The Kilmers frequently pass along clothing they no longer use to other families. Another wonderful lesson, they say, for the children.
No Government Assistance!
The Wesleys had 17 I think, and either John or Charles Wesley was #17.
The revival following theirs and others’ preaching changed the world.
Not sure why this discussion is even in progress as the WaPo article provides the answer here.
Hmmm, are you saying that if she would have had a driver's license, she would have had more in total or more in the 10 year span?
Just to expand my general knowledge, how does a driver's license figure into all of this this?
Beautiful family.
John Wesley was the 15th child and Charles was younger. There were 19 in all, but only 10 survived infancy. Their mother, Susannah, was the youngest of 25 children! (It’s not clear from the Wikipedia bios whether her mother was the mother of all 25, or if an earlier wife had some and then died.)
Then just stop thinking, you hurt the team.......So you're the guy that sees the glass half empty, you're the guy who automatically assumes the worse in everybody.
I'm sure you're the life of the party whenever you're invited..............
You know nothing about these people and have no business throwing your crap against their wall hoping something sticks.......Now where have I seen that tactic before?
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My mother had 7 children and a driver's license. You may be right.
Thank you. It’s a question of philosophy. I don’t think we should have a lot of the government activity we do - starting with government schools - but I also don’t think people are obligated to organize their lives around how they fit into whatever government is doing at any particular time.
It’s funny how government employees always seem to get a moral pass. Yes, many of them are working - while many are not, and there’s no way to fire them - but most are working at something that either should not be done at all, or should not be done by government.
Does Poster Melas think that, since we should not have a Department of Education (or Energy, or HUD, or HHS, or Equal Employment Opportunity, etc., etc.) that every employee is morally obliged to quit his job and forswear his pension or other benefits? If not, why not?
She should work her butt off to feed and clothe her child.
Or ask her church or relative for help, not the general public.
I think the most I’ve had in ten years is six (Bill is 17, James is 7) ... and I have a driver’s license. And a computer!
Sorry, I misread your post. I thought that your contention was that a woman would have more children if she didn’t have a driver’s license. My mistake.
And judging by your factless comments, you'd be even happier if you were right............
I shake my head in amazement at folks like you and wonder if perhaps democrats are right, conservatives aren't the party of tolerance they claim to be......
You’re an exceptional woman. :)
I live in the suburbs. Maybe the lady originally referenced, license-less, could walk to a grocery store or kept a very large garden.
"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."
I thought that the statement concerning control is extremely perceptive and covers many aspects of people's lives these days. People have in lieu of a strong belief in The LORD become control freaks. The amazing thing is that the more people become control freaks, thinking that they are the gods of their own destinies, the more chaos has taken over society. These same people profoundly lack the ability to realize it except the few who The LORD gives to the ability to see.
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