I wrote this letter to the JonesLife volunteers to thank them for all they have done over the last year, but we wanted to share it with everyone out there who has been involved in even the tiniest way in helping us to survive and thrive in this, year one of the Quintuplet Invasion…

Dear JonesLife Volunteers,

Can you believe The Fab Five is turning one tomorrow?!  We are so excited to celebrate their birthday with all of you!  I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for what you have done for us over the past 12 months and in that regard I’d like to share a quick story with you.

As part of the filming for the documentary that is being filmed about our life with the five, I was being interviewed the other day when I was asked a question that I had not considered, only because to me, the answer was obvious.  However, in answering the question, I realized that the answer may not be as clear to others as it was so in my head and in Casey’s thoughts as well.

The question was simple:  “The birthday party…why are you guys throwing such a big party?  Why are you inviting this chaos into your home…I mean, 100 people?  Why would you do that?”  And this was my reply…

Are you kidding me?  This is a CEL-E-BRATION!  I mean, think about the history of what a birthday celebration originally meant – it was a true recognition of the fact that you had survived in this world another year.  This day and age we’ve lost the meaning of that because surviving another year, especially in America, is pretty much a given…it’s expected.  But this day is different; this birthday truly is recognition of what these babies have been through and what we have encountered as a family in the last 12 months.  Think about it, these five babies faced a life and death situation on the day of their birth.  I mean, we never really questioned whether they would live or die, but if they hadn’t been born where they were born and been under constant care for nearly three months and been given the most advanced treatments that the gift of medical science would allow, they likely would not have survived.  Truly, truly this is a birthday celebration like most families have not experienced!

On top of that, think about what this family has faced since the babies were born – the NICU days where they were strapped to every machine imaginable for their simple survival was not an easy thing to endure.  The sleepless nights, the constant feedings, the complete upheaval of every aspect of our lives, the challenge to our marriage, the challenge to Eliot’s state of mind, the strain on our close relationships, the crossover from being virtually needless to being incredibly needy…those things are not easy to overcome in a lifetime, let alone a single year on the calendar!  In spite of all of that, this family and this marriage is not merely surviving, we are thriving!

And, of course, this day is also a way of saying thank you.  We are doing this not only to celebrate the babies, but also as a way to honor the people who have helped make our family’s survival a possibility!  We have met some amazing people who have put their own lives on hold so many times and in so many ways just to help our family feel a slight sense of relief from the magnitude of all of this…change, challenge, stress, LIFE.  There is absolutely no way we would be where we are today without the help of our family and the volunteers, most of whom were complete strangers before the babies were born, others we barely knew.  This party is as much about thanking them as it is about celebrating the birth of our babies!

This party, this birthday celebration, this gathering is about so much more than cake and ice cream and a simple song.  It is about God’s blessings and God’s gifts and about God’s guiding hand on these five tiny lives, on this family’s pulse, and on the hearts of the great many people who faithfully provided sustenance and rest and relief.  Given all of that, how could we not celebrate?  How could we not give back this one small moment to recognize what this period in our lives has been and what it could not have been without?  I don’t see how it could be any other way…

So again, we say, “Thank you!” to all of the volunteers, family members, and friends who have helped us get through year one of the Quintuplet Invasion!!  It has been a challenging year, no doubt about it, but more importantly it has been a fun year and a year of incredible growth – literally and figuratively!  When we say we could not have done it without your help, you probably know better than us that we mean exactly what we say!

God Bless,

Ethan, Casey, and The Six Pack

I was working in the office this afternoon (I work from home) when we had one of those moments.  We have kind of a busy house as you might imagine and from time to time, as it seems to in everyone’s life, things started to happen all at once.  These moments do not happen very often, but they are not too uncommon either, and we’ve grown accustomed to such bouts of busy-ness in our little world.  Here is what happened in the span of about fifteen minutes…

Eliot and I went upstairs to play with the babies for a few minutes as two of the volunteers were getting ready to leave. Before the two volunteers left another arrived followed a couple of minutes after that by a second volunteer, both ready to play with babies for the 3:00 shift.  Right after that, a third volunteer arrived unexpectedly to drop off a casserole she had made for the night (dinner…thank you!)…and of course she came up to say hi to the babies…who wouldn’t?!  So now, we’re up to five volunteers, five babies, one Eliot, and one supposed-to-be-working dad.  As the dinner-bringer exits, I hear a knock at the door, but do not see anyone out there so I forget about it as my phone starts ringing…I didn’t make it in time to answer.  As the phone stops ringing, the doorbell begins its chime, but again, no one is there.  So I head downstairs to see why we seem to be the victim of some pranksters only to discover that a friend has stopped by to see the babies…unexpectedly…that happens a lot…

What are we up to now?  Oh yeah, still at five adults, five babies, one Eliot, and one supposed-to-be-working dad because one volunteer left and the friend came in.  Alright, so we’re settling in, two volunteers are heading out, two are getting their hands on babies, the friend is doing the same, Eliot is playing, I’m refereeing, and yes, the phone and the doorbell both start to ring…again.  This time I make it to the phone and guess what, it is a contractor I work with who is in the neighborhood (literally) saying he needs to stop by…awesome timing.  And the door?  That is one of Eliot’s neighborhood friends coming over to play for awhile. So I go downstairs to meet the contractor then quickly head back up to pick up where I left off, which I think was holding Jack and occupying Britton.  The friend stayed for about ten minutes and had to head out (I think he had had all he could handle!) so I walk to the door with him.  And as things begin to settle back down, the count which will remain for the next 30 minutes or so is two volunteers, five babies, one Eliot, one friend of Eliot’s, and one still-supposed-to-be-working dad!

And, oh yeah, the whole time this is happening Casey is in the bedroom laying down in recovery from the shower she had just taken…recovery from the mommy makeover is a bit ssslooooooowwwww…

And now, this supposed-to-be-working dad is writing a blog because I’m having a hard time concentrating on the work that I was supposed to be doing…imagine that!

Thank you to all of the volunteers and friends who help to keep this house hopping!!  Good times in the JonesLife…I just had to share!

Eliot is the Photographer!

As you might imagine, there have been many surprises that have come along with life since receiving the big surprise last August when we found out that the Quint Invasion was headed our way.  Not all of the surprises have been good, not all have been bad, and certainly some that seemed one way or the other at first, turned out to be quite the opposite after the dust had settled.  The fact that I am still enrolled in Baylor’s EMBA program is a huge surprise that would not have been possible without the unbelievable support we received from the Baylor community.  The excitement we felt when we heard we were the topic of conversation on 590 KLBJ’s morning show a few days before the babies’ birth will not be forgotten.  Nor will the punch in the gut feeling that quickly followed when we heard all of the awful things that were being said about us by both the callers and the show’s DJ’s…not a good surprise to say the least!  With the diaper drive held on our behalf along with their sizable gift card donation, HEB’s incredible generosity clearly stands out as one of the highlights in the long list of godsends that have helped to turn our response to this adventure from overwhelmed to overjoyed…the list could go on…

But clearly the most gratifying and rewarding “surprises” that have come our way have been the individual acts of love, support, and selflessness that we have experienced from the big hearts of our volunteers and other helpers.  I put the word “surprises” in quotes above because there was a certain level of expectation of this sort of attention when we decided to go public with our story.  We knew that people would rally around us and around these babies in some form or fashion.  We believe in the goodness of people, in the strength of God’s love in the hearts of the faithful, and we knew that our journey would inspire some to get involved.  But the thought, the extent, and the care to which people have gone to ensure that our babies are taken care of, to help us involve our older daughter in the amazing transition for a family of three to a family of eight, and even to give Casey and I some time to each other has been a source of constant amazement, humility, and yes, surprise.  We can never thank these folks enough for the indelible mark they have left on our family’s hearts!

My primary reason for writing this blog is to recognize two of these folks, two of these surprises, two very special ladies who have not only left their mark on our family, they have become family in every sense of the word (we’ve managed to get past the fact that both of them are red-heads…somehow).  The two women pictured below, Tricia Harrison and Jennifer Ericson, are as much a part of this story as anything else.

Jennifer, wow, what a cool story!  She saw us on the news, found us on the web, signed up through the care calendar, and has been here at least five days of every week for the past three or four months…and we have no intention of letting her go anytime soon!  I’m not sure what compelled her to jump into the lives of complete strangers – she’s a little on the shy side, though I’m certain there is a dark side lurking underneath that red hair of hers!  But now she is our total, on-call girl…Miss Go-With-The-Flow!  Casey emails her every day to let her know what time we’ll need her help, depending on how much help has signed up on the care calendar, and that is when she arrives ready to love on babies!  She has even recruited her mom and one of her high school friends for the cause!  Her calm, happy, loving spirit is the perfect antidote for crazy babies and knows a thing or two about quieting an inconsolable infant…which is usually Britton :-).  She loves the Fab Five like nobody else and the Fab Five loves her back!!  Thank you, Jennifer, you are AWESOME!!

We knew Tricia and her husband, Dusten, sort of, through our church group at Riverbend.  And because of her, we are alive today…I’m only barely kidding!  Tricia jumped in red-head first from the beginning, organizing the care calendar, running background checks, cooking meals, and just generally being AWESOME!!  Then, she took it about 1000 steps forward…she started picking up shifts – day shifts, night shifts, weekend shifts, vacation day shifts, back-to-back shifts – you name it, she did it and did it with a smile (a slightly mischievous smile, but a smile nonetheless)!  During the toughest time of this experience, the time when the babies gave Casey and I less than three hours of sleep each night, Tricia was there, every other night, four nights a week, for three months straight to allow Casey and I to sleep, uninterrupted for at least six hours.  Now do you think I’m kidding when I say that we are alive today because of her??!  She even dragged her husband and two high schoolers into the fun, bringing them along to help with all of the above.  They are an amazing family!  Now that calmer nights have arrived and the focus has shifted more to the days, Tricia is still with us, arriving every day before 7:00 so that Casey and I can get ready for our day ahead, walk Eliot to school, and allow us to get other stuff done around the house.  Spirited, fun, giving, selfless, loving…thank you, Tricia, you are all of these and more!!

So we’re getting used to surprises these days in whichever form they choose to present themselves.  They’ve come fast and furious and in the most interesting ways.  And, God willing, they’ll keep coming…red-headed or not!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net