Elizabeth,

One thing that always starts the conversation off on a good foot is to be clear that you like big families.   "God has blessed you with a beautiful family." or "I would love to have a large family someday."

Whenever our family is out in public we get lots and lots of looks and lots and lots of comments.  Most of the comments are basically polite and generic like what you mentioned, because generally speaking, even if people think you're crazy, they will be pretty polite.  So making sure that your comment clearly communicates that you really LIKE the large family is important.

I think the comments that bless and encourage us the most are the ones that show that the speaker thinks that it is wonderful or a blessing to see such a large family.   The ones that are along the lines of "you've got your hands full" and similiar ones are so common that they are tiring to hear again and again.  I have a friend who would love to have a large family, though her husband has said no more, so she has taken it on as her mission to watch for opportunity to encourage and talk with mothers of large families that she sees when out and about.

I love when people say things to us, even if it's kind of in shock.  Being pregnant with #10, we get a good many comments even when I only have 4 or 5 with me!  I like most when people say, "what beautiful, well-behaved children."  Or "God has truly blessed you."  I don't think I've ever gotten a negative comment though we do get quite a few stares and "negative" looks : )

I love when people are positive about having a large family. We go places and I am used to the WOW are they all yours comments and all the other comments that go along with having a family our size.
On our Make A Wish trip, the flight attendants were prepared for chaos. They were shocked when all the kids were so well behaved. The one flight attendant came to me and said Your children are so well behaved and have such good manners. How do you teach them? I shared with her a little bit of why they behave so well. I also thanked her for her kind words. When you don't have good comments often, it's good to hear a kind word.

After our 5th or 6th child was born, being seen in public became uncomfortable.  I was SO upset by people's rude comments, that I had 2 tee shirts made that said, "Yes, I know how this happened, and we call them blessings."  My husband and I wore them once, and then  I  had to repent for MY bad attitude.  I realized that people really don't understand what a blessing children are and what it means to allow God to plan your family.  One of the comments that I enjoy the most is, "You must have SOOO much fun at your house."   Yes, I am blessed!

I love the idea of the t shirts. I have often wanted to get the ones on cafepress. My husband has one that is a joke that says Who are all these kids and why are they calling me dad? We joke about it. He loves the kids but he got so tired of people asking him questions. It is even worse in job interviews. Instead of what are you qualifications, it becomes wow you can take care of that many kids?

Shawnee,

I understand about the questions and comments in the workplace.  As soon as I give birth to a baby, Mark's co-workers start asking him DAILY if we are expecting.  (They literally start asking the day after a baby is born!) I did not believe that they really asked EVERY SINGLE DAY until one time we took a pregnancy test that ended up positive and Mark called a while later from work saying that co-workers had guessed that we were pregnant based on his response to their daily question.

Just wondering how this actually works?  Do you guys not know when you are ovulating, or you do, but you just figure you won't get pregnant unless it's God's will?

Sorry if that sound like I was insincere!  We have just tried to decide what we should do as we are wanting to adopt again and can't if we get pregnant.  Apologies!

Ashley,

We believe that every single person on this earth is created by God and that He created each individual for a purpose and with a plan for their life. So the short answer to your question is  that we do not believe that we God will 'accidently' create a child outside of His perfect plan and will.

The other part of this equation is that God tells us over and over in Scripture that children are a blessing and that bareness is a curse. So for us to try to prevent God's blessing by purposefully imposing His curse upon ourselves seems to be contrary to what a Christian should desire.