A Chinese Perspective on Large Families

 This Thanksgiving we were host to 6 Chinese college students from UNC.  None of these precious students had ever had a Thanksgiving meal, actually had never eaten a meal in an American home and certainly had never been in a home with 10 children!  They were absolutely a delight to be around. Our church has an International student ministry and we volunteered to host a few Chinese students. I had heard ahead of time that a few of them wanted to come to our house especially when they heard how large our family was.  I was a little leary about that and wondered if we would freak them out : ) But they were so interested in everything and loved all the children.  All of them had grown-up in one child households and said that they grew-up so very lonely.  They said they each had one cousin.  In talking to them, I was reminded of the new law in China that says if both the husband and the wife come from one child households, then they are allowed to have two children.  They were all so excited about this.  It was precious to see their faces light-up talking about possibly having 2 children, but was somewhat sad to me too. They loved playing with the children and taking a tour of the home.  Anyway, all of this got me thinking of some questions people ask me at times, like "How do you have time to spend with each child? Do you enjoy each one individually?"  Well, here is my blanket answer to these.....God gave me these precious ones and He knew that should be on this earth right now. He gives me time for each one and He multiplies my time. Actually,  it's really not about me "enjoying" each one (which I do) but about raising them to be godly, mature adults.  The practical ways we do this will come in the next post :)

Our precious Chinese visitors.  They loved taking pictures with us!