Party of 9 — Betty Vertin

“Mommy, hold me. Mommy, hold me.” These were the words I heard repeatedly from my 3-year-old daughter, Callie, during the four days we spent in the neuromuscular clinic with her older brothers last week.

My husband, Jason, and I are parents to seven children: Lexi, 23; Max, 19; Chance, 17; Rowen, 16; Charlie, 14; Mary, 10; and Callie, 3. This week we’re traveling with five of them: Max,…

Superheroes were a large part of my life less than a decade ago. I am a boy mom. We had four sons in five years, and our house quickly became a lived-in museum of…

My heart is walking a tightrope. I’m a 45-year-old wife to Jason and mother to our seven children: Lexi, 23, Max, 19, Chance, 17, Rowen, 16, Charlie, 14, Mary, 10, and Callie, 3. Three…

I’ll be straightforward about caregiving: It’s exhausting. I’m the mother of seven children: Lexi, 23, Max, 19, Chance, 17, Rowen, 16, Charlie, 14, Mary, 10, and Callie, 3. I’m also a caregiver to Max,…

I read a quote the other day on Facebook: “When you are raising babies, you feel how long the days are. When raising teens, you feel with every single bone in your body how…

Parenting is the most challenging job I’ve ever had. When my role as a parent expanded into caregiving for three of my children, challenging didn’t even begin to describe the path that lay in…

I live in rural Nebraska with my husband and our seven children. Three of them — Max, 19; Rowen, 15; and Charlie, 14 — live with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). People who meet…

The Christmas decorations are down and tucked into storage for another year. The house is clean, the counters are clear of the holiday sweets, and our routine is again in sync. However, this holiday…

Occasionally I struggle to find a topic to write about in my weekly column. I had that experience before writing this one, so I asked my husband, Jason, what I should write about.

In the past 12 months, our oldest daughter got married, our oldest son moved across town into a college dorm, another son started his final year of high school, and, most significantly, I returned…