David Whitten's 27 kids

Last time I saw my old schoolmate, David, he and Cheryl had only 21 kids. When he wrote me this week, he mentioned that he now has 6 more. All of their lovely, boisterous children (many of whom were born with difficult conditions including blindness, missing limbs or deforming maladies) have been adopted. The driveway echoes with with bouncing of basketballs and the house vibrates with energy.

Some of his kids once told me they wanted a karaoke machine for Christmas. i sent one, and David reported that the whole crew embraced it and turned the living room into a non-stop club. The universal truth is that kids love to sing.

Now David says that Ben, his Korean son, has acquired another little Korean brother. Their favorite song? "I'm a Seoul man!"