Raising Nine

Parker Family Story

"Love doesn't divide, it multiplies."

Fifteen years ago, at the young age of 21, I gave birth to my incredible first child, Landen Jude Parker. The pregnancy and birth of Landen went so smoothly, for the most part, that I was excited to go through the process again.

The moment Landen was born Alex, my amazing husband, and I made the decision that we wanted to keep expanding our little family.

Less than a year later, Landen was "given" a best friend for eternity that we named Caid Grant Parker. Carrying and delivering Caid went smoother than it did with Landen. He did not cause me much problems for the whole nine months he was rapidly growing in my stomach. When it came to delivering him, he was out with only one push.

Although we had two adorable boys, something in Alex and I told us that it was not our time to stop. Call us crazy, but we truly believed that all the decisions we made were the right ones, for us.

The next pregnancy was different from the first two. In the first trimester, we were notified by our phenomenal doctor, the same one that delivered Landen and Caid, that there was not one baby in my stomach. There were two! The flood of different emotions you get when you hear something like that is indescribable. We were ecstatic because the amount of kids we had was going to double, but we were also majorly shocked since the original plan only involved one baby. Alex and I always knew in the back of our minds that there was a possibility that I could have multiples, because multiples were a trend in both of our families.

After eight grueling months of pain, rest, and doctor visits the miracle twins were born only four weeks premature; resulting in them having to stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for seven long, emotional days. Alexander and my schedule consisted of us getting up at three in the morning to go to the hospital, and driving back home at eleven. Was it hard, you may ask us. The answer to that would be no, and yes. there was not a doubt in our minds that it would be all worth it in the end, but it was also hard to keep going throughout our day knowing that our babies were suffering.

Gage Maddox Parker and Grey Zackery Parker met their two brothers three days after they got home, because their greatmom and greatdad (grandma and pa) that lived two hours away courageously stepped in and took the boys for my last month of pregnancy with the twins. Their older brothers, at only one and two, could have cared less for the new edition to the family when we first brought them home. But, they obviously warmed up to the idea soon.

After three pregnancy filled years, we decided to settle down for a while with our four boys. Although, we knew we had not quite reached the child finish line yet.

At that time we lived comfortably in a cozy house in Charleston, West Virginia. The house was one of the newest in the neighborhood, so it was a steal. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. With a wrap around porch, and a screened porch, that allowed us to view our breathtaking three acres. The house was perfect for us at that moment. The guest house that we now own was actually built to resemble our lovely, first house.

Alex and I, coming from highly prosperous families, each used a part of our inheritance to set aside in a bank account for our future family. We shared the dream of eventually building a lavish house for our kids, just like both of our parents did for us.

With the tremendous support and favors from our extremely generous friends and family, Alex and I were able to graduate college when we were 25.

The next years involved us meeting new people, getting involved with our current community, and trying to create a vivid future for our kids. These years also had many birthdays, firsts, and adventures packed into them.

Four Years Later :

With four wonderful kids ages 9, 8, and 7, Alex and I decided that it was time to add another little angel to our family. But before we added, we wanted to invest into building our house on an estate. Life would change drastically for our four boys, and that's what we were aiming for. Alex and I wanted to give the boys the best of both worlds: a comfortable life in a small house and a lush life living on their families estate. Planning out the house and getting it built went faster than we expected, taking only a year. The next step was to pack up our little big family and head out to Texas, where our new, beautiful house was located.

It took a couple of months for the boys to adjust to the new house. During this time, the boys were introduced into several different sports and activities. We had a dirt racing track added onto the estate and a football field painted onto the flattest part of our land when the boys' love for sports started to grow. They also took classes for different areas of interest, in hopes that they would be very well-rounded in the years to come.

One Year Later :

After we settled down in our grand house, we found ourselves more than happy with another handsome little man. We named him Dylan Scott Parker. Lucky me, I once again had an incredibly smooth pregnancy.

Having Dylan reminded Alexander and I how much we loved adding to our family. So, you guessed it! There was another Parker about to be delivered on the baby express a few months after Dylan's first birthday.

There was something uniquely special about delivering this baby though. After five kids, this baby would be the first Parker princess. We gave this precious angel the name McKenzie Blaire Parker.

We took another "pregnancy break" after having McKenzie.

Four Years Later :

When McKenzie was four years old she asked me, "Mommy, am I ever going to have a little sister?".

The crazy thing about that question was that Alexander and I were discussing it the night before. So...

Now:

I am a mother to nine "perfect Parkers". You're probably wondering how I jumped from six kids to nine, in one year. I recently, two months ago, gave birth to triplets by the names of: Tanner Jax Parker, Berklee Eliza Parker, and Declan Max Parker. That my friends, is a completely different story that I will save for later.

To make a long story short my life with my wonderful husband and extraordinary nine kids is as close to perfect as you can get! And I'm inviting you into it!