"They have blossomed, sort of like a moth coming out of a cocoon," Wes Whatcott says to the collective groan of his children.

The family is frugal — eating out usually means at a local buffet or an early morning breakfast at McDonald's. The children have or have had jobs, buy their own clothes and pay their own cell phone bills.

Five of them went to a recent school prom, which meant four new dresses for the girls. (My husband said, "Let's just do it," Sandra Whatcott said.

"It's not like we're in the poorhouse," Wes Whatcott said, "but we have to watch our pennies."

Ten years ago, the couple said they had yet to experience a bad day with their new family.

"We've had bad days," Wes Whatcott says now, though he is hard-pressed to come up with a specific incident. "There might be an hour that isn't good," Sandra Whatcott adds.

There was the time that Abel totaled the car on an icy road. He wasn't hurt, but now the three teenage drivers in the family are down a vehicle.

There was also the time Raman didn't come home after school and the police were called. Turns out he spent the night at a friend's house without telling his parents.

Still, they haven't run into anything that makes them re-think being parents again.

"We said it then and we'll say it now," he said. "It's a lot better than being out in a Winnebago."

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E-mail: romboy@desnews.com