26 Marian Helper • Fall 2025 • Marian.org “Do you have other children?” the phlebotomist asked smilingly, looking up from the order my midwife had sent over to the lab. I swallowed and blinked hard. “Yes. Six.” “Wow. That’s a lot.” She was still smiling as she began gathering her supplies: vials, a tourniquet, Band-Aids. She had two children of her own, she told me. They were still in elementary school. She couldn’t imagine having seven. By Marian Friedrichs ‘God planned this’ The Friedrichs — Mara (10), Bernadette (14), Pia (8), mom Marian, Gideon (6), dad Matt holding Tirian, Isaiah (16), and Kateri (12) — at the county fair, on Marian and Matt’s 18th wedding anniversary. PRO-LIFE WATCH
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