Free I Just Want You to Know by Kate Gosselin Page A

theircribs down and taught them how to climb out onto a stool, changed them on the floor, and had them climb into their high chairs.
    Two weeks after the surgery I slowly started to get back into a regular routine. I still couldn’t believe my belly was on its way to looking normal again.
    As you can see, the fringe benefits affiliated with making the second hour special helped us out immensely, and in this case, made it possible for a dream to come true. An additional bonus was that we had yet a second hour of memories captured on DVD.
    By the time we signed up to do the television series, we had been filming for a year already. We liked the routine, our kids loved the crew members, and we loved being able to work at home and travel as a family—a win-win all around. Jon and I were in agreement that this was a great opportunity for all of us.
    It wasn’t until much later that the price to pay for giving up our privacy became evident—as no one could have predicted how well our show would do.
    Everybody talks about saving for college for their kids, but it was almost laughable to us with eight children, who would all be attending at the same time. It’s definitely a daunting dream to send them all to college, but every time we could, we put a little away. Even though we didn’t have a lot of money, we were not in debt. So when we signed on to do the series (one season at that time), our primary goal was to put the money toward providing for the future of our children, even though we knew that the amount wouldn’t make a dent in eight college funds. I know there’s nothing wrong with working your way through college—that’s what I did even though I still needed financial assistance from my grandparents. But we wanted to be sure they had the opportunity to go to college, and we didn’t want money to be what kept them from going. If we had an only child, we’d pay for her college, so why couldn’t we do it for eight?
    There was more to filming than viewers got to see. Filming was flexible and the crew worked around our family schedule. We filmed anywhere from two hours to six hours a day, and from one to three days a week. The majority of the interviews at the end of the episodes were taped at night after the kids were in bed, since that was the only time the house was quiet. Those interviews were fun times where Jon and I would laugh and hang out with the crew. We drank coffee and ate jelly beans and often continued hanging out long after our interviews were completed. This was our way of spending time with co-workers, and we enjoyed our working relationship with them.
    Leah helps by “clapping” the marker during a television shoot.
    We worked hard to keep a steady, familiar crew to create a personal intimate environment. We made it a point to meet and get to know each person before they became a part of our film crew so they weren’t bodies behind cameras; they were people with a friendship and familiarity with our family.
    When the cameras were off, the crew and the kids played together. They would give piggy back rides, play games, stack blocks, and watch skits Mady and Cara put on for them. The kids even had nicknames for each of them—Stinky, Meatball, Wave, and JenLittle. When they would arrive for filming, the kids would run and greet them with hugs. Then they would start in on the stories they had saved up to tell crew.
    Mike, the sound guy, used his furry boom mic as a toy for them, and Collin once used a long weed as his own boom mic.
    In addition our kids had a rare opportunity to be a part of something that provided financial benefits, enjoyable life experiences, and family memories. We were amazed at how well it all worked!

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A MIRACLE A DAY
    Our family experienced firsthand God’s provision for us more times than we can count—groceries came exactly when we needed them, we had a “shoe angel” who got us through numerous seasons by providing eight pairs of shoes, we received clothing and