Raising large families

Earlier today, I had an e-mail discussion with a reader about our NFP series. While this person believes in the church's teachings on NFP, she posed a followup question that is often asked: What is available for help to parents who want to be always open to life, either using or not using NFP, but struggle with raising a large family -- particularly when the children start to enter their teen years? She wonders why the church encourages large families but then does not have enough direction or help for those large families if struggles arise down the road.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about how large families make it work... or if you're planning a large family, how would you try to make it work and do you know others who have made it work? How do parents avoid emotional and spiritual breakdowns by trying to manage a large family? Here is an honest and heartfelt comment from the e-mail exchange. She has a large family and some of the children are now in their teens:

I was open to life and now I find I am in the dire situation of not knowing what to do with my older children. The Church doesn’t seem to have an answer to that one! What if I am not emotionally stable or financially able to handle all these teenagers? . . . I am quickly reminded though, that they are God’s children anyway. Every breath we take, for better or for worse, is in His ever loving hands.