What's 5 more kids?

Tomorrow I hit 40 and I'm happy to report I've found my calling. Or rather we've found our calling: moving into someone else's house and watching their kids. This week we've settled into an old farmhouse and are watching five kids. If my math is right, that makes 17 kids under the age of 19 under one roof. It's kind of wild, I must admit. There's a dog involved (he goes by the handle of "Rufus") a 600-lb. sow named "Sister" that lightened her load earlier this week by 14 piglets (11 of whom are still living and suckling tonight), chickens, cows, miscellaneous cats and who knows what else. There's some serious food being put down in this house, I can tell you that.

The back story is that we got our start in this endeavor back in November when we watched two kids for some good friends who had to leave town in an emergency. We're also lined up to watch four kids for a weekend for a couple heading to Texas in February. Since we left Virginia in September, we've become a mobile family. We're permanently living with friends in Philomath, at least until we head back to Virginia in June, but are pretty much nomads of Oregon, making the rounds of Bend, Canby, Philomath, Corvallis ... we've pitched our tent with all sorts of family and friends. As Pastor Chuck Smith says, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." We're blessed to help out our friends and blessed that they for some reason think that inviting a family with 12 kids over to their house to watch their kids is a good thing. So if you're looking for someone to watch your kids, give us a shout. We're ready to mobilize.