I rarely stay up till wee-hours in the morning reading a book, but I did so last night. At 1:30 a.m., I finished reading the final words in Clarence Thomas’ My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. This is a must-read for those of us who remember the Anita Hill Hearings and the national trial of 1991 when a conservative black man was appointed to the Supreme Court. Those of you who remember the portrayal of the He-said/She-said dispute by the media will find the behind-the-scenes final chapters irresistible page-turners.

There were a number of things that struck me about the life of Clarence Thomas that I hadn’t known. First, as the title points out, he was raised by his grandfather (his mother’s father) as his relationship with his biological father “ended at conception.” Before going to live with his grandfather, his life was as “southern black” as you can get, and his book recalls his daily chore of hauling the bucket of human waste out of the outhouse for the rest of the family. His childhood was extremely impoverished, his lifelong belongings fitting into a paper bag when he moved to his grandparent’s home. It was under his grandfather’s teaching (he and his brother called their grandfather “Daddy”) that Clarence learned the strong work ethic that made him the conservative he is today. Read the rest of this entry »

The Colorado Springs Gazette has published an article on our family and the TLC experience. You can click through and read the article–published this morning–here. It is a great article. Here are some of the good lines from it:

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When Wendy and I married, our family vehicle was a 1980 Chevette. It didn’t take long to grow into the 4-door sedan, then to a Toyota minivan, then to a 9-seat Suburban, and now to a 15-passenger van. Our vehicles have grown as our family has grown, but in 2004 we made the ultimate plunge: we bought a bus. Read the rest of this entry »

Tracy Chaplin, the producer of the upcoming mini-series Families by the Dozen, explained TLC as “returning to being a learning channel.” People want to learn about what it is like to be in a family like ours, to be a fly on the wall, to walk through a week with the Jeubs and observe daily occurrences that, similar to anyone, is unique with a dozen kids running around. Read the rest of this entry »

Large families face natural dilemmas, and we deal with them with innovation. We adapt - we buy larger vans, remodel to increase the number of bedrooms, carry on small businesses to make ends meet. Children are a blessing, not a burden, and God provides us with the ideas necessary to survive.

One dilemma is the birthday. Read the rest of this entry »

I suppose I wasn’t much different from a lot of 22-year-olds: If asked whether I was pro-life or pro-choice, I opted for “anti-abortion.” I had never been involved with an abortion in any way, yet I was unwilling to make a reasonable — let alone bold — statement either for or against the practice.

Still, like a lot of 22-year-olds, I had an opinion of a subject I knew little about.

That all changed when I experienced my first ultrasound. My wife Wendy was 15 weeks pregnant with our daughter, yet-to-be-named Cynthia. Read the rest of this entry »

My wife and I are about to welcome our tenth child into the world. We are the type of family that, upon entering a restaurant (on “Kids Eat Free” night), cause couples to request the booth farthest from us. Trying to find an empty pew on Sunday morning is a weekly trial. And while our 15-passenger van struggles to keep up with right-lane traffic, we have plenty of room in the far back end for friends to drop off bags of clothes.
We are a “large family” – a modern familial phenomenon that finds comfort in noisy homes, chaotic schedules and lots of little pattering feet. Or at least people assume we find comfort in those things. Read the rest of this entry »

Best known as the lead rapper in the successful multi-platinum group DC Talk, Toby McKeehan, nicknamed “tobyMac,” is also a songwriter, producer and businessman. On stage or behind the scenes he’s president of Gotee records, too—it seems everything tobyMac touches turns to gold. Commercial success aside, 37-year-old McKeehan shines brightest when he talks about his 3-and-a-half-year-old son, Truett. In fact, his first and only solo album, Momentum, features a number of snippets of his son. McKeehan spoke with Family.org about the joy his “True Blue” has brought to his life. Read the rest of this entry »