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In brief
- Maria and Najib El Khoury have seven girls and six boys aged between 4 and 22.
- As Mother’s Day approaches, Maria says the beautiful experience of motherhood has made her all the more grateful for her own mum.
Maria El Khoury, a mother to thirteen children, has gained a profound respect for her own mother through her journey in motherhood. She now truly understands the immense responsibility, love, and sacrifice that come with being a parent.
“They are everything to me, alongside my husband,” she shared with SBS Arabic.
“When one of the children is absent, we often remark, ‘Oh, someone’s missing. Hopefully, they’ll be back from work soon.’ We look forward to their return so we can engage with them and catch up.”
Before marriage, Maria had always envisioned a bustling dining table, filled with family.
Together with her husband, Najib, Maria is raising seven daughters and six sons, ranging in age from their eldest at 22 to their youngest at just four years old.
At 47 herself, Maria doesn’t see herself as a “super mum”, but simply as a mother like any other — only with a much bigger workload and a much fuller home.
“I do what everybody else does, but triple the work,” she said.
“I bless my mum every day. I always apologise to her … now that I’m a mother.”
As the children have grown older, Maria says they are the ones that make her feel the most special.
It fills her heart to see each of them happy and thriving.
She believes that the bigger the family, the bigger the love, and their home reflects exactly that: lively, noisy, warm, and overflowing with affection.
Every milestone, every shared meal, and every small moment becomes richer when experienced together.
Her children feel the bond strongly as well, describing her as strong, patient, selfless and caring.
Her son, Joseph, describes a mother as a “a role model who teaches you to be who you are and to raise you from the day you’re born to the day you die”.
“My mum, she’s a very strong woman, she’s very selfless and she’s very resilient,” said her daughter Joelene.
“If I was to become a mother, I would aspire to be like mine.”
While Maria wouldn’t trade it for anything, she admits that raising thirteen children comes with emotional challenges.
She feels a deep sense of guilt whenever one child needs her — especially during times of illness of hospital stays — and she can’t physically be present for the younger ones at the same time.
But she’s certain of one thing: her love for all thirteen of her children is equal, unwavering and shared wholeheartedly among them.
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