#aimeedoyle

Dear diary,

My dear daugther Harriet is married. It was such a lovely day at such a beautiful church! Harriet choose not to get married at our home church but at Shinji's church. I completly understood as soon as I saw the church. It's so beautiful!

Above with all my daughters except Olimpia. She was sick. Charlotte is now back home. She and Lukas are not going on missions outside the country anymore. I'm very relieved. But Charlotte is wearing pants now. It's very sad to see my daughter go this way. I tried talking to her but she kept saying that Lukas is okay with it. If that's true, I must accept it.

The church with the two crosses. Such a beautiful reminder of his grace.

I adore this photo. So beautiful in the eveninglight. Just like a fairytale.

And just after the wedding, Evangeline, came with wonderful news! She is expecting a second baby! She and Chevin have a boy, Raimundo and are hoping for a girl this time. And so do I since I only have grandsons!

Dear diary,

Another saturday means another festival in town. But this time it was a cow festival. I don't have cows. And you could enter the milk competion but since I don't have cows, I don't produce milk either. I just went for a short time with my sister Aimee and then back home.

It was a bit scary to leave my childeren back at home but they are getting so big now. My youngest set of twins is already 10 years old and my oldest could easily help them if something was wrong.

Love, Susanna

Dear diary,

My mom left us, me and my brothers, alone at home for the first time ever! She went to the festival in town with my aunt Aimee just to sell stuff from her garden. So it wasn't like we would all go like a family.

I was very excited at first but being alone at home was soon over. I did enjoy spending time with my aunt Aimee. She is so sweet.

Dear diary,

That we live in a farm is all thanks to my dear sister Aimee. She is not only my sister but also my best friend. I love her and couldn't live without her listening ear, her help and her encouragement. She came by for a much needed visit and I got to show her my farm.

First I showed the chickens. I love hearing them chatter when I'm working in the garden. They always come running at me when I go inside their coop.

My garden is looking good. I'm trying to grow big vegetables. But I also try to grow other, normal, stuff. Aimee was so proud of me and I have to say that I liked that more then I want to admit. We are not raised to be proud at our selfs but I can't help it sometimes. I had to come from so far and now I'm here, running my farm, caring for my childeren by myself.

Aimee says it's normal te be proud at your self. That our parents didn't teach us that right. I think of that a lot but yet I don't know if that is true.

Dear diary,

My parents have been married for 35 years! I'm so happy for them. They have been so blessed in these 35 years, 19 childeren, 43 grandchilderen and thousands of happy moments together.

My sister Aimee came with a idea and showed it to me and my childeren. She thought it was a good idea to start a farm. I already have experience with gardening so with a couple of chickens I might be able to make a living for my childeren. And they could help!

This lovely farm is for sale. It looks small but has three three bedrooms, just as our current home, and two bathrooms but we could make a third like we have now.

It already has a chickencoop in the garden. It looks so sweet. I want to live here already.

We tried looking inside but we couldn't see much. The childeren where just as happy as I was about living on a farm. They couldn't stop talking about chickens and the pond.

Dear diary,

I have many sisters, 10 to be exact. But we do not share a special bond with all of us. We have groups of sister who share a bond. The three oldest, Charlotte, Lucy and Evangeline, the in between girls, Florence and Ann, they are in between a lot of boys, the youngest ones, Clara, Olimpia, Harriet and Lilias, and then me and Aimee are close. It's pretty much based on our ages. And then ofcourse we have relationships based on the buddygroups we where in growing up. For me that's Harriet. She is 16 and still lives at home with my parents and youngest siblings.

With Aimee there is more a friendship bond. We love chatting and sharing our difficulties in life. Aimee did go a other way in life. She wears pants and doesn't want any more childeren then her current three daughters. They also differ much in age. Her eldest is older then my eldest while her youngest is younger then my youngest. So she had three childeren in a longer timeframe then I had my six childeren.

But all the differences in our lives don't matter. She may wear pants, stop having childeren while still being married, she is my sister and best friend. And today we had another moment together drinking coffee and the local coffeebar. I just love hanging out with her like this.

She is always there for me whenever I feel down and overwhelmed with the tasks as widower with six young childeren. She is trying to help me find a solution to my problem not being able to care for my childeren while also making money to feed and clothed them.

I felt much more confident afterwards so I did some jogging before doing my daily tasks.

Cleaning, fixing and gardening.

Dear diary,

I recently visited my sister Aimee. She was expecting too, now she has a baby girl who I need to meet as soon as possible. She is named Rosa Aimee Carlson. So sweet. It's my parents 9th grandchild and 2nd granddaughter. They have so many grandsons! I'm hoping for my mother that my baby is a girl too.

My grandfather recently celebrated his 80th birthday! He is getting old and we sometimes fear that he will die soon. We all love him and my grandmother so much. I hope they will get to meet my little baby.

I loved having them over the other day. They are so thoughtful to all their grandchilderen, and there are a lot of them!

Dear diary,

We have been blessed with our second set of twins. A boy and a girl named George Oswald Doyle and Florence Rosa Doyle. They have been named after George Washington Truett, Oswald Chambers, Florence Nightingale and Rosa Parks. All very important people in our history and christian identity.

George and Florence are so cute and tiny. I love having another set of twins. So do Charlotte and Lucy. I love seeing the relationship my older girls develop with their younger siblings. My grandmother always told me about her buddy system. She had her three oldest girls each have a group of siblings to look after. Since a couple of years I started doing the same.

Group 1 is lead by Charlotte and she has Aimee and Matthew under her wings. Groep 2 is lead by Lucy and she has Susanna under her wing. When I have another baby George will her join them. Group 3 is lead by Evangeline and she has Charles under her wing, Florence will join them when I have another baby. Roger and William don't have a buddygroup. They are old enough to take responsibility themselfs. (AN: above part is writing thinking about the real ages the childeren have, not the fast aged up ages the childeren have)

Aimee is engaged! John had a special date planned for him and Aimee and he popped the question during a nice walk after a lovely diner. Aimee and John will be very happy together, I'm sure. We are already buzy with weddingplanning.

My daugther Susanna is a teenager. She is such a lovely young lady growing up. And she didn't rethink the piggytales. She just weares one now. It looks beautiful on her.

Dear diary,

As a mother sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the things I have to do every day. I just have to remind myself over and over again that I'm shaping the future of my childeren in the little moments I have with them. They are each special and important. In all the husle and bustle of the weeks and months with all the birthday's, pregnancyappiontments, schoolprojects, we tend to forget the little moments. In my diary I mostly pay attention to the big things, I like to make a difference in that.

I always loved cooking but for a big family it's a lot of work. So I'm happy with big daughters who can help me with all the cooking. Aimee is always so helpful and the little moments with her in the kitchen really strengten our relationship.

While life is buzy with nine childeren, I always make sure to have time for my youngest childeren to read their bedtime story's. Matthew really loves the attention during that moment before he has to go to sleep. During the day he doesn't want to cuddle anymore with his mother but that moment before bedtime, he sure does. I love it.

I like to create those little moments with my childeren as a reward for their actions. It doesn't matter if it's polite conversations with other people, doing chores or something else. They are rewarded with my attention.