IMAGINE awaiting the birth of an eleventh sibling and twelfth child.
That’s the blessed reality for Fiona and Paul Webb of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, and their almost apostle-sized brood.
Asked society’s reaction to such a healthy figure, they recalled a visit to Rome, Italy.
“We were privileged to be able to travel to Europe in 2009,” Paul said.
“I remember being in a pizza shop in Rome when a couple approached us in halted English.
“When they confirmed that the (then) 10 children were all ours they just wanted to shake hands, hug and thank us.
“They said they had five children … (and often encountered) strange looks.
“They were excited and thankful that they were not alone in their high regard for children as a gift from God and a fruit of their relationship.”
Generally the Webbs said they experience “strange or subdued responses when people hear how many children we have, but hostile responses are rare”.
“Most people get over the initial response and are, on reflection, very supportive,” Fiona said.
“They often start telling us about their own experiences with large families which are generally very positive.”
Fiona and Paul, who marked 21 years of marriage on December 30, were both raised in “good, Catholic homes with an understanding and commitment to God’s plan for marriage and family”.
Interestingly, both sets of parents also married on December 30, Paul’s parents last year celebrating 50 years of marriage and Fiona’s, 61.
“Between three couples we have clocked up 132 years of marriage,” Paul said.
“Fiona and I each have eight surviving siblings and have learned that conservation, cooperation and sharing are essential and rewarding in a world where resources are limited.”
Paul was raised in the North Queensland town of Mareeba, the second eldest of Colin and Denyse Webb.
He attended Catholic schools run by the Sisters of Mercy and the Marist Brothers.
While his “late teens and early twenties were a bit wild at times” Paul said his grounding in the Church offered “firm faith footings”.
His parents modelled the “head and heart of a loving God” in that “Dad was always fair but firm and Mum was ever caring and forgiving”.
Fiona is the second youngest of Owen and Marjorie Cusack and said her childhood was similar to Paul’s and “the Sisters of Mercy and the parish priests were regular visitors”.
The duo met when Fiona was sent to teach in Mareeba and Paul had returned homeward in his work as hydrographer (streamflow and water quality surveyor).
“I was inclined to avoid meeting this nice, young lady my mother had met at prayer meetings,” he said.
“It seemed like a set up.”
Eventually Fiona and Paul crossed paths at a wedding of mutual friends.
“Our friendship grew and was just firming into something more when I was posted as teaching principal to the remote school of Laura west of Cooktown (four hours drive from Mareeba at the time),” she said.
“(But) Paul was not to be put off so traded the V8 Torana in for a Rodeo ute (utility) and continued our courtship from afar and with weekend visits.”
They exchanged wedding vows in 1990.
Fiona delights in her “stay-at-home-Mum role” and said its “love, joys and challenges lead to a much fuller life than I could ever have hoped for as a school teacher and principal”.
Paul is now employed in a non-government natural resource management organisation.
He was amused “when colleagues and environmentalists talk about overpopulation as a problem” when his family “is living, and living well, on lower water use, power use and carbon footprint than the average Australian two-child family”.
Since the move to Toowoomba in 1995, the Webbs have been members of the international Schoenstatt Movement.
“This movement’s spirituality is based on a Covenant relationship with Our Lady as the key to building a strong relationship with Her Son, Jesus, and the Heavenly Father,” Paul said.
“My growth in this Covenant relationship is in no small way strengthened by the memories of my family life when my mother was always nurturing, supporting and guiding me to the ‘Father’.”
The Webbs keep the teachings of the Church close to their vocation as husband and wife.
“Humane Vitae consolidated the teachings on the linked unitive and pro-creative aspects of the marriage bond,” Paul said.
“However, Pope Paul VI highlighted when releasing this document that it required an ‘adequate anthropology’ to explain how it is part of God’s plan for marriage and family.
“Pope John Paul II provided the foundations of this adequate anthropology with the Theology of the Body teachings early in his pontificate.
“We now have these wonderful explanations of the natural and super-natural blessings offered through marriage and our sexuality that the world badly needs to hear.”
The Webbs have welcomed David, 19, Liam, 16, Nancy, 15, Nathan, 14, Peter, 12, Isaac, 11, James, 9, Rebecca, 8, Thomas, 5, Owen, 3 and Xavier, 2.
They named the anticipated new arrival as “Hope” so as to “not call the baby ‘it'” but admit they aren’t usually correct in predicting a new baby’s sex.
“The children always look forward to and enjoy the arrival of the next baby,” Fiona said.
Counting their blessings, the Webbs expressed gratitude to their parents for “the wonderful gift they passed on to us in the form of our faith and a lived example of God’s plan for marriage and family”.
“We see many people struggling with marriage and relationships that are based on other understandings of love, life and sexuality,” Paul said.
“Our shared understanding seems to have made life so much easier.
“(And) although we fall short of the mark in many ways, we at least know where the mark is and don’t need to waste time, effort and emotion in pursuit of disordered models of love, marriage and sexuality as often portrayed in the media.”
Fiona added her thoughts on what was “passed on from the lived example” of their parents.
“We entered into the marriage covenant with an understanding of the need for commitment, self-sacrifice and fidelity,” she said.
“From the outset the presiding priest and our families have prayed for our marriage to be ‘blessed’ with children.”
“Despite the social norms and medical stats we have been exposed to, we have held the understanding passed on from our parents and the Church that children are a blessing, not a curse,” Paul said.
