My latest random obsession

There's this show on TLC called Jon and Kate Plus 8. It's a story of a family with two six-year olds and six two-year olds. Yes, that's right. A set of twins and a set of sextuplets. The dad is Asian, which makes it more interesting to me. The show was actually originally on Discovery Health, so most episodes were filmed last year. I guess two seven-year olds and six 3-year olds is not nearly as interesting, nor catchy.

Anyway, they are pretty interesting. The mom is this super anal clean-freaky nag monster. The dad was only 29 at the time, and he was always bickering with his wife. Honestly, watching the show you can't help but swear they hated each other. But it's almost in an endearing way. Hard to explain.

So since I'm all into this family, I of course went and looked up as much as I could find on them online. Unfortunately, there is very little available. I think all the info is from 2004, when the show aired. What I DID glean was that the family was very strong in their faith. In fact, it's their faith that holds them all together, amidst the chaos and craziness. They actually went to speak at a church in Fresno on the last episode, which I thought was random until I discovered they were actually Christian.

If you go to their website, you see how their faith led them through most of their decisions, especially the decision to not go the "reduction" route and abort several of the vital fetuses. Their faith keeps them afloat when they discover she has PCOS and has to undergo infertility treatments and when they have 6 newborns that require constant feeding, changing and holding. Now, especially more than ever, their faith keeps their marriage intact when they almost never get to be alone, at least not when they have any energy left over.

They show a shot of the mom when she was almost at the end of her 2nd pregnancy (she didn't make it full term, of course). I think she was bed-ridden because she was only able to lie on her back for a few seconds. Her tummy was so protruded, she couldn't reach the end of it. Sick. She actually ended up getting a tummy tuck that some plastic surgeon donated to her or something.

This family is very intriguing to me. Partly because of the mixed race thing, partly because of the ridiculous number of children, partly because of the constant nagging/bickering in the parents' relationship, partly because of their faith. One thing I read that the wife had said kinda bothered me, though. She said it was God's will for us to be fruitful and multiply, so infertility obviously wasn't the plan for their lives, therefore justifying the route they took. As much as I respect their faith and the role it plays in their lives, I totally disagree with that. There are so many examples of God purposefully making women barren for whatever reasons in the Bible. Whether it was to later glorify Him through a miracle, or punishment for sin, or a trial to make the woman turn to Him in faith, infertility definitely has a place in God's plan. Not that I'm saying I disagree with their decisions or anything, but that statement in particular sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyway. I really like this family. I want to meet them and take care of them. I'm all attached to the children and want to, like, cuddle them or buy them presents. I feel emotionally involved in their lives. Isn't that weird? A little too much? I find them very likable, especially because of the bickering. So much more realistic to be that way. There are those crazy cultish Christian families with the 16 children who make up their own church in their house and stuff who are so, "La dee dah! We love having this many children! We are completely organized and no one ever fights or doesn't get along!" This family is more like, "The children will probably be the death of us," and "Aiden, did you bite Colin?" and "Mommy is boring and Daddy is fun."

It's on Monday nights on TLC. Watch it. I like it.