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They’re one Brigg happy family.
Paul and Jeane Briggs already have their hands full with 37 children, but the West Virginia couple say they won’t rule out adopting more.
Married since 1976, the couple share five biological children and 32 adopted children, ranging in age from 10 to 47. In a new interview with PEOPLE, the Briggs say they always knew they were meant to have kids, but not quite this many.
“There was never any talk of a megafamily,” Paul, 71, told the outlet. “There was never this, ‘Well, let’s try to get to this number or that number.’ It was really just a series of events that continued to bring more children in.”
And despite their supersized family, they’re not totally ruling out a new addition.
“If someone knocked on my door with a child. … I’d prefer one that’s not a baby,” Jeane, 69, told PEOPLE.
After raising their five biological children, the Briggs began adopting kids in 1985 when they adopted their son Abraham from Mexico. Legally blind, Abraham is one of the Briggs 14 children who live in their 5,000 square-foot home.
In the busy Briggs household, everyone has their fair share of work to do. The kids are assigned daily tasks and weekly chores, and older children rotate as Jeane’s assistants at the grocery store.
“When you have that many people under one roof, if they don’t have anything to do, they’re going to find something to do,” Paul said.
Over the years, the family has become less strict about cellphone and bedtime rules, but they always manage to get to church on time.
“We’ve heard parents joke that they struggle to get one or two children to church on time, while our entire family regularly arrives early,” they told PEOPLE.
The family told PEOPLE they rely on Paul’s salary and company benefits as well as government assistance for three of their children with disabilities.
In a 2014 interview with Today, Paul revealed the couple spends an eye-watering $52,000 at the supermarket each year.
In that interview, Paul said he had a ‘very, very good job’ with a credit card processing company, while Jeane was a stay-at-home mom.
Some of the Briggs’ older children still live with the family. Joseph, 36, who was adopted with two of his siblings from Ukraine in 2005, says the family’s holiday meals are why he’s “never going to move out.”
Joseph says being adopted was life-changing.
“Coming here to a loving family, to clean clothes, a nice bed, food on the table, the house, and just everything was amazing,” he told PEOPLE.
He’s one of the 17 of the Briggs children who work at Walmart or Sam’s Club. Through Walmart’s “Live Better U” program, five of the Briggs siblings received more than $50,000 to use toward their education.
One of the Briggs children has even followed in her parents’ footsteps. Daughter Mary Kate Johnson, 43, has 14 children of her own with her husband Keith. Four of her children were adopted from Ghana. The family lives nine doors down from the Briggs.
Johnson remembered her childhood with many siblings fondly.
“It was a lot to adjust, but it was always very positive,” she told PEOPLE. “So much so that I wanted to do it when I got older.”
Today, she has nothing but respect for her parents.
“Through it all, I have only the utmost regard for my parents. They have handled it very well, and they’ve been thrown a lot,” she said. “But because of how they’ve lived and what they’ve seen and how they’ve handled every situation, it’s truly remarkable.”
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