#marcodoyle

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,

my parents have been married for 45 years! And still, when they look at eachother you see so much love. They have been blessed incredible for all those years. And they have both been such a blessing to so many of us.

My mother recently turned 65 years old, my father is already 71 years old. We love every visit of them and we get plenty of them. They love to see their many grandchilderen.

I have 6 siblings. Abby is my oldest sister. She is married to Sam and together they have 9 childeren, Isa, Karen, Samuel, Victoria, Adeline, Albert, Cecelia, Eleonor and Leonard. Isa, Karen and Victoria are already married. Isa has two childeren and is expecting another. Karen has one child and Victoria is a newlywed.

Beau is my eldest brother. He is married to Isabel and they have 9 childeren too, Maggie, Wayne, Susie, Clint, Finnley, Addie, Holly, Macie and Oliver. Maggie is already married but doesn't have childeren yet.

Then there is my sister Christina. She is married to Aaron and they have 9 childeren also, Abel, Tina, Amos, Brenda, Josiah, Sandra, Micah, Isaiah and Patricia. They are all under 18 so no one is married yet.

Then there is me. Me and Marco have 16 childeren, Charlotte, Lucy, Evangeline, Roger, William, Aimee, Susanna, Charles, Matthew, George, Florence, Benjamin, Ann, Stephen, Clara and Olimpia. They are all under 18. And we have a little surprise, we are expecting #17! We feel so blessed to add another little one to our growing family. (AN: the ages are the spreadsheat ages. Because I age them up faster a lot of them are married in game)

Fifth is my twinsister Fiona. She is married to Fredrick. They have 4 childeren, Nathan, David, Rebecca and Esther. Their childeren are all under 6.

My second brother is Gabriel. He is married to Tamara and together they have 7 childeren, Elijah, Ethan, Emily, Ezra, Edward, Evan and Eleonor. They are all under 10. Tamara is expecting too, around the same time as me. So special!

And then there is my little sister Hosanna. She is married to Ronald and they have two childeren, Ellen and James. They are both young too.

Dear diary,

My daughter Ann is already a teenager. She is such a spirited young girl blosseming into a young woman. I love to see the development in my girls when they go from child to woman.

My son Benjamin got married. We were all happy for them to get engaged but soon after we heard devastating news. His fiance, Mary, is pregnant! I couldn't believe it but I had to face it. I'm going to be a grandmother way to soon because he has been seduced. No good can come from wearing pants. (AN: Yes, she blames the pants for all of it)

All my boys, Roger, Matthew, Marco, Benjamin, Stephen, George, Charles and William. And me and Marco with the bride and groom. Ofcourse she couldn't wear white anymore.

It was a lovely ceremony but it hurted so much to see her belly. But so thankful to know they are married now and this baby will be cared for.

Dear diary,

Marco and I have been married for 20 years now. I can't believe it has been so long since our marriage. And I love him even more now then I did the day we got married. He is just the sweetest and most special man I have ever meet.

Since our weddingday we have been blessed with 17 childeren and we are now expecting our 18th baby! We have been so blessed as a couple by the Lord.

And we are already going to be grandparents! Our daughter Charlotte is expecting her first baby. So special! It sad that she doesn't live close to us otherwise I would visit her everyday. But we talk all the time on the phone so it's like I'm there all the way.

Dear diary,

I'm so thrilled for Elianna! She is engaged after six months of courting. She will make such a good wife to Marco.

We went over to his place to check it out. It's a nice little cottage for the two of them. Elianna will be very happy there.

I don't want to think to long and hard about when she will be married. I'll miss her so much. Maybe my mother was right and I need to get married too. But Nicolas isn't the one for me, that's for sure.

Dear diary,

I'm engaged! I still can't believe Marco actually proposed to me and wants to marry me. He is the sweetest and he made such a effort to make the proposal special. Ofcourse he asked my dad before he proposed. He invited both my mom and Fiona with us on a date to chaperonne. We went to a restaurant and had a wonderful meal. Then he took me to a waterfall and there he went down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised I didn't say yes right away. He had to wait a little bit. He was so happy when I finally said 'yes'.

Since the engagement we have been weddingplanning and I went over several times to Marco's house. It has to be ready for me to move in, in just a couple of months.

Dear diary,

Sorry, I just had to write this down. It's ugly but I can't have it in my mind any longer. My brother in law is lazy. Yes, he works hard to provide for his family. But that's it. While my sister is taking care of nine childeren all day long, 24/7. He has a job of eight hours five days a week and he does nothing in the house. All the chores, all the childcare come down to my sister.

When he comes home from work her relaxes on the couch or does a work out on the tred mill. He waits for diner to be served and after he diner he relaxes some more. In the meantime Elianna is buzy with the little ones, making diner, helping the older ones make their homework. Even the childeren do more then he does.

Besides work the only thing he does is getting my sister pregnant. Over and over again. She is 28 years old and pregnant with her 10th child! In not even ten years of marriage. She will have ten under ten. The only thing I can do for her is hug her and help out while he doesn't.

Sorry for my rant. I just had to for once. It's so frustrating. I wish Elianna didn't put up with it and asked him to help out more. But she feels like it's her job to do this for him. And that she wouldn't be a good wife if she wouldn't do it. Maybe that's what is frustrating me the most, how he feeds her with these thoughts. Because this isn't how we where raised.

Dear diary,

My two youngest are already growing older. If I just could stop that proces for a little moment. At the same time we are so proud at our childeren, both me and Marco.

My youngest daugther, Lilias is a teenager now. She is becoming a lovely lady. She loves to be by herself. Not a really good trait in such a big family but she survives.

My youngest son, Phillip is now a courting adult. He is such a people person, always looking for someone to talk with. So it's now wonder that he is already courting a lovely lady, Alida. We are very excited for them and can't wait what the future holds for these two.

And then one more piece of news, my daughter Aimee is expecting her first baby! We are so happy for her and John. They are going to be wonderful parents to baby Carlson.

Love, Elianna