Look Out, Duggars — This Family Has 34 Kids And Counting!

Jeane Briggs and husband Paul are getting ready to leave their home in Falling Waters, West Virginia, to make a trip to Africa, in order to expand their already expansive family of 34 kids — five biological, and 29 adopted. It’s just the latest of many such trips. The Briggs began to adopt children nearly 30 years ago, from all over the globe, including Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Ghana.

And the Briggs don’t just search for children in hard-to-find places; they specifically seek out and adopt older children and special-needs kids — kids that are typically very hard to place.

Their upcoming trip to Africa is to adopt a baby who was found abandoned, with no legs and no hands.

The Briggs family has also adopted a child who had a hole in the heart, one who had suffered from polio, cancer survivors, children who had cleft lips or cleft palates, those with leg deformities, scoliosis, kidney problems, autism, learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. So why do the Jeane and Paul seek these special children out?

According to Jeane Briggs, when she sees a child in need, she has the same reaction almost every time.

“Nobody is going to want this child — can we bring him home?”

And as for why she and husband Paul have adopted so many children, Briggs says she never put a limit on how many children she wanted — and she still doesn’t have a limit; she has always wanted a lot of children. Jeane and Paul first tried foster care in the U.S., but became frustrated by the system, she said. And then, through church, she heard about a 2-year-old blind boy named Abraham who was living in a Mexican orphanage. Abraham also suffered brain damage after a beating. She went to meet him, and knew immediately that she wanted to adopt him.

That was in 1985, the first of many such adoptions.

“I just enjoy it. This is my career. I say to my kids, ‘you’re the very air I breathe so I need you, I need that oxygen,'” Briggs told Today in an interview.

The Briggs’ many children have nothing but love and respect for their parents.

Joseph, now 24, was 14 when he was adopted. He had been born with a cleft lip and palate and abandoned by his biological parents in Ukraine.

“It was hard to believe that someone wanted me with my problem,” Joseph said. “I can’t repay them for what they did for me… I love my parents to the moon and back.”

There are 28 other stories, each so different, spanning different continents, but each with an underlying message: a child needed a family and the Briggs family provided.

And speaking of providing…there are many costs that go along with not just adopting so many children, but also with adopting so many children with specific medical needs. Groceries alone cost the family around $1,000 a week — that’s $52,000 a year.

According to Jeane, Paul has a “very good job,” but she also admits they spend every penny of his salary. His employer also pays their employees $10,000 each time a family adopts, which helps offset the initial expenses. And his employer also provides excellent health coverage, which is necessary for family that is so large and with so many medical needs.

There are a total of 26 people currently living in the Briggs household, including parents Jeane and Paul. The house is equipped with two stoves, as well as several refrigerators and freezers to handle the amount of food they need each week. An inheritance allowed the Briggs to expand their current home to 5,000 square feet, with nine separate bedrooms.

Jeane Briggs, with a background in nursing and education, home schools the children, and admits that with so many kids in the house, discipline can be a challenge, and there are occasional serious problems that have to be handled. She says her faith helps her during difficult moments — and that it’s all worth it when she thinks about her kids.

“Because we have seen what change in their life we can make.”

Jeane Briggs seems to indicate on her blog that she is part of the “quiverfull” movement that the Duggars, who have parented 19 kids, also abide by. For more on that, click here.

[Image via Today]