We were leaving Mass, doing the necessary head count, when the feeling struck me that someone was missing. We later found out that, to our joy, we were expecting our seventh. I used to have conversations with people about our children who were surprised that we had three, then shocked that we had four. Funnily enough, no one seems to have much opinion at all about five, six or seven, and these days it is notable that many say hopeful things to us. Older people often talk about the fact that they come from big families.