Moore, Moore & More
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[0 Comment]MARY & MITCH MOORE
| 10th anniversary: | October 8, 1998 |
| Hometown: | Santa Barbara, California |
| Children: | Keric (5), Payton (5), Clare (5), Shane (5) and Riley (4) |
| Mitch's occupation: | Painting contractor |
| Mary's occupation: | Full-time wife and mom |
| MP readers: | 4+ years |
Marriage is a big step forward in setting aside the selfishness of focusing on "my goals, my plans and my dreams." After all, you've got another person's welfare to consider. But if you really want to smash your selfishness to smithereens, try having five kids in less than two years.
In 1993, Mitch and Mary Moore were blessed with quadruplets—three boys and a girl. "They were all born healthy, answers to tons of prayer from everyone we knew," says Mary. "The big surprise was Clare. I'd had about 20 ultrasounds, and every one indicated that I was carrying four boys. When the third baby was a girl, there was so much whooping and hollering our friends out in the hall wondered what was going on!"
Taking responsibility for four kids at once is a major adjustment, and for Mitch it precipitated a personal crisis. "It just wasn't how I'd pictured fatherhood," he says. "I wasn't pleasant to be around. It took me nine months of soul searching and praying. The Lord began to turn me into the kind of father and husband he wanted me to be.
"Now I'm a dad/husband junkie," he says. "I want to pour myself into my family."
He's amazed by his wife, too. "It wasn't motherhood the way Mary expected either, but she responded so much better than I did. But that's Mary. She sees a task at hand and says, 'Let's do it!' Anyone stopping over at our house would just jump in as this conveyor belt of life—feeding, bathing, diapers—was going by."
"People say to us, 'Well, you guys could do it, but I couldn't,'" says Mary, referring to parenting the small crowd of Moores. "But when it happens to you, God gives you the strength to get the job done."
Mary's tough time started just about when Mitch's ended. Thinking enough was enough with four at once, the Moores had opted for what they thought would be a "permanent" form of birth control. "But the Lord had his own plans," says Mary. The quadruplets were nine months old when she found out she was pregnant again.
"It didn't seem fair," she says. "We knew how many people were dying to have a child. And there we were with more than we could handle, and I was pregnant. We panicked. But by the time Riley was born we were ready. The Lord knew what he was doing."
Partners and Friends
Despite the five small challenges running around their home, the Moores stay close. We keep learning about each other," says Mary. "It's amazing how different and more fulfilling our relationship is from anything I ever dreamed it would be."
How does this kind of closeness happen? "Obviously, a lot of teamwork goes into handling the kids," she says. "It's helped that we have such a strong friendship as a foundation."
Originally published in: Marriage Partnership, 1998, Spring
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