Did you plan to have 15 children?

11 of the Jeub kids on a typical afternoon.

“Did you plan to have 15 children?”

More than one person has asked us this question. Answer? No. In fact, I don’t know anyone (and we sort of hang out with parents of large families) who claims to have planned to have a lot of children. Family planning wasn’t and isn’t on our minds. God has that figured out. He’s the plan advocate. We’re just the parents who love each other and trust in God’s plan.

The picture above was not posed. Tabitha was cuing up a YouTube video and the kids naturally huddled around. The iPhone pic made us ponder. Wow, just look at ‘em. Every one of them have unique personalities, each one adding so much value to those around them. They’re like the Little Rascal’s Gang, the Boxcar Children, the kings and queens of Narnia…put together.

Life is good, children are a blessing, and planning otherwise doesn’t make sense.

About Chris & Wendy Jeub

The Jeub Family live in Monument, Colorado, with 14 of their 16 children. They encourage couples to love God and love one another, building an atmosphere of love in their homes.

http://angela_d6086@charter.net Angela Beltran

Who in thier right mind would plan on 15 kids (or 7 in my case). You don’t realize that one more isn’t that big of a deal until your thier. When I met my husband he would joke about 12 kids and I would ask him ,” and how many of those do you plan on having?” But now if the number ends up being 10 or even 20 it doesn’t matter. Thier comes a calm when you really believe that God does provide and as you look back you are able to see his handy work.
Wanda

Before my husband and I got married 23 years ago, we talked about children, we planned on having 6 or 7 children. But we decided to leave it up to God as to how many children He would bless us with. We were not going to stand in the way of His blessings. We just assumed He would bless us with a really big family.
23 Years later we have 4 children.
Four years into our marriage we were told by Doctors we could not have children.
God had other plans ) Our first son was born six years after we got married. Three years later our second son was born. Eight years after that we were blessed this time thru adoption of our first daughter, two years after that we adopted our fourth child (our second daughter).
Sometimes you can plan to have a big family, but God has other plans for you. But can any of us really ‘plan’ what only God can give? )
Jane Buss

We spent years trying to work out what contraception was right, trying to work out when I was more fertile etc. During the 12 years of trying to work it out and not actually using any contraception because we just couldn’t find anything that our conscience felt happy with, we have had 7 children. It is only since discovering the ‘quiverfull movement’ that it all started to slot into place and make sense as to why we had never found true peace with any contraception. Now we feel so free and peaceful and are totally open and excited about what God has in store for our family.
Marie

Beautifully written…..we have been blessed with six children in 21 years of marriage. We would be thrilled with more but we have left if up to God. He alone knows best.
Marie
http://www.lifeaboveandbeyond.com Debi

Love this post. Your family has touched the lives of so many others. We are one family who have been enriched by your speech and debate leadership. Although, we’ve not met personally – I want to thank you on behalf of ALL of us. We ONLY have 11 kids -:)
Raising Patriots!
http://www.treasuresfromashoebox.blogspot.com Cheryl

Beautiful family and wonderful advice! We kept trying to prevent children until the Lord brought us to salvation in Jesus. The very first issue He dealt with us on was our attitude toward children. We were expecting #5 at the time. Thirteen years later, we now have 10 children (so far).
http://ramblingtheoldpaths.blogspot.com/ kerri

I totally agree! It’s amazing how much variety in personality can come from one set of parents. We have our introvert, the flamboyant one, the empathetic one, the foodie, the musician, the astronomer.. It’s wonderful to see the creativity of God in each ones’ personality and interests. And as they each bring home friends it gives us a whole other set to get to know. Kids are fun!
http://huffmasterfamily.com Dawn

Good, concise answer to the question and one that I totally agree with! LOL

Blessings, Dawn
http://www.naturallysoothing.com Annette

We didn’t feel comfortable with birth control either. We always said we’d like to have 5 or 7 kids…now at 20 years of marriage we have 5+7 (12 kids!)
The last two were c-sections; my body doesn’t seem to be able to do the work of delivering a baby anymore, so after prayer and discussion we decided that we are finished.
Wendy, I was wondering if that was an issue for you (effective contractions) after so many pregnancies.
Blessings!!!!
Annette
Sandra

Most people would assume with our family of 2 kids that we used some form of birth control.But we didn’t! The only ‘giveaway’ is the fact they’re about a year and a 1/2 apart in age.
Nonetheless they are great kids and we don’t feel any ‘less blessed’.More and more I am beginning to understand that this was God’s plan for us,as He planned all from the beginning.
http://barrettscountryliving.blogspot.com/ mary beth

Do you have a pic of all 15 kids. The one at the top has 13. I think it’s wonderful all the children. Well one thing for sure, you should be taken care of in your old age…=- ) Love the blog, the pics and the large family. God Bless
Jennifer

So glad to know my children arent the only ones with holes in their knees! Thanks for being so real!
Loved the post. Our 11th child is just 6 months old, I dont feel healthy enough to be pregnant again, so a few months ago I begged the Lord to not let me get pregnant again just yet. His response? “Children are a blessing… You are not your own, you were bought with a price… why do you think it’s your choice when to have children?”
That was convincing enough! His ways are best!