Menachem Bluming shares the news; it’s Triplets, Mazel tov!

What a fantastic perspective:

“This week G-d granted Shevy and I the greatest blessing any parent could wish for—healthy infant triplets!!!

When we first thought that maybe Shevy was pregnant, we went to the OBGYN for a routine confirmation appointment. We've done this before. Not a second thought.

We were elated when the doctor established the pregnancy and told Shevy to return the week after for another routine check. We had five beautiful kids at home, which together with a newborn would make that six. How exciting!

But at the appointment the week after, the doctor told her we were actually expecting twins. That meant we'd be skipping from five kids straight to seven! Wow. We felt truly blessed.  She told Shevy to return again for another check up the following week.

When Shevy returned the next week, the doctor detected a third little baby and told her we would be having triplets and that she should come back again the following week. To say we were in a daze would be an understatement.

The first words out of my mouth were, "Shevy, there is no way you can go to that doctor for another check-up next week!"

When I told the good news with a sibling, she was incredulous. "What did you do?!" she asked. "Nothing different from the first five!" I assured her.

We feel beyond blessed that our triplets have arrived with an all-natural, non-medicated delivery that astounded the medical team, happy and healthy at 34 weeks.

And just like that, our family has gone from five children to eight!

Our friends' reactions have been from both sides.

One close friend nearly fell off his chair when I informed him.

Another texted me, "Rabbi, are you ok??"

Then I got, "Rabbi, I am supplying you with Netflix for the next five years..."

And of course, the anticipated, "Mazal tov. Are you finished now?"

Of course, the challenges are high.

I just Googled "How to raise eight children in Manhattan" and came up with zero results. That's because nobody that I know has eight kids in NYC.  Just check out, "Tuition costs NYC" and you'll understand why. 

How will we pay for private schooling for eight kids? How will we afford home large enough for eight kids on the Upper East Side? Is that even realistic? What car will we drive? What will our food bills look like? How will I find time in my already jammed schedule to bathe, feed, play with, and actively raise them?

I don't have all the answers just yet, but I know we'll work it out.

Are we going to have to make sacrifices? Absolutely. With eight kids under 11, we won't be taking a family vacation anytime soon, or perhaps decades.

But I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Each child is a precious treasure, gifted to us directly from G-d.
Imagine you earned one million dollars, and then you made another million a year later, followed by another million, and so on. And then in a single day you made three million dollars, totalling eight million, and someone came along and asked, "Are you done yet?" That's exactly how I feel, only for me, I don’t have not eight million, it's eight billion!”


Menachem Mendel Bluming quoting from Rabbi Uriel and Shevy Vigler

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