Almost a year and a half ago, a little girl named Bonnie was born into the Radfors family. Her birth sparked a storm of reaction in the British media: television programs were devoted to her, and newspapers and magazines talked about her extensively. Why all this attention? After all, she’s her parents’ 21st child! And a year ago, the same reaction led to the birth of the twentieth child.
The couple in this large family have been dating since they were children. They met when Sue was 7 and Noel 12. They had many things in common, including having grown up in foster care, abandoned by their mother and father from childhood.
At the age of 13, Sue became pregnant with her first child and gave birth to him at 14. Although the couple were still very young, they did not place their child in an orphanage. They married as soon as Sue turned 18.
In all, the couple had 21 children in their 26 years together, the youngest being born at the age of at the age of 43.
“At first we thought we’d stop at three babies, but we love having babies around us so much we couldn’t stop. We’re very used to babies and we love them very much,” admits Noel.
When the seventh child was born, Dad had a vasectomy, but he soon changed his mind and had the surgery cancelled.
The large family lives in a 10-bedroom house they bought in 2004 for £240,000. They keep a blog where they talk about their daily lives, family celebrations, meals, travels and experiences as parents.
Every day, they drink around 10 liters of milk, three liters of fruit juice and eat three boxes of cereals a day. In one day, they do around 20 kilos of laundry!
The family rarely goes to the movies, cafés or trampolines, because these activities cost a lot of money. They prefer family picnics, walks in the public garden and evenings spent playing board games at home. There are a lot of them, but they’re extremely happy to be together, because for them family is the greatest treasure in the world.
