A lot of families quarantining together have been feeling the squeeze at home lately, but few families have quite the headcount of the Briggs family of Falling Waters, West Virginia. That's because Jeanne and Paul Briggs are parents to a whopping 38 children — six biological and 32 adopted. Although not all of them are quarantining under one roof, as several have since flown the nest, the Briggs family has 21 children living at home … which has certainly kept the pandemic interesting.
The family recently shared with 'Inside Edition' how they've been coping during the quarantine.
For the most part, they've been doing the best they can (just like the rest of us). But unlike a lot of other families, the pandemic hasn't just meant they've been spending a lot of quality family time indoors, brainstorming ways to fight the boredom. That's because 12 members of the Briggs familiy have contracted the virus in the last month — which has made riding out the quarantine far more challenging than you might expect.
Jeane says their bout with the coronavirus was a "tough experience" -- to say the least.
Along with 10 of their children, both Paul and Jeane contracted the illness. But only Jeane's case was severe enough to warrant hospitalization. In fact, she became so ill that she eventually ended up the intensive care unit.
In the meantime, Paul had to quarantine alone in a room inside their home, where he had already been working remotely for the past seven weeks.
As for how the family got the virus, Jeane shared that her son Joseph was the first one to fall ill.
Joseph works at Sam's Club, and last month, he became one of the thousands who began showing signs of COVID-19 after being exposed to it during his shift. (According to United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 30 grocery store employees had died of the virus as of mid-April, USA Today reported.)
Four days later, Jeane started feeling ill too — experiencing everything from a fever and dizziness to gastrointestinal issues.
"By Easter Sunday, I wasn't feeling good and I told my family, 'You're going to have to take me to the ER,'" she told Inside Edition. "When I left, everybody was crying. It was a bad scene."
Soon after, her husband began experiencing mild symptoms, and several other children followed.
Remarkably, though, Jeane was released from the hospital four days later and has since recovered after quarantining at home for nearly four weeks.
Self-isolating in a house of 21 kids wasn't easy, but the Briggs family have made it work by moving mattresses into other rooms, designating certain bathrooms and areas of the house for those with the illness, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.
In fact, Jeane told Inside Edition that the kids get up about 30 minutes earlier than usual, just so they can disinfect the house with antibacterial wipes and Lysol spray. And they repeat the process twice a day. (Having all those extra little cleaning helpers sure does come in handy!)
Paul said that the large family "always emphasized good hygiene," but COVID-19 really kicked things up a notch.
Just like all of us, they've also had to be mindful with how much toilet paper and paper towels they're using — because as you can imagine, a house of 23 people goes through a lot of it. Luckily, Jeane says she's been buying ahead and saving that kind of stuff for years, so they haven't had any shortages.
And believe it or not, in the midst of all of this turmoil, they've somehow managed to continue homeschooling 14 of their children — something they already do all year, which certainly made things easier.
Jeane says one last child has tested positive, though he's asymptomatic and quarantining in his room.
Despite the entire ordeal, both she and Paul feel lucky.
"We've been fortunate that with all of the kids and ourselves who have had this and Jeanne, only Jeanne has had to be hospitalized,” Paul said. “So we've kinda been able to work through the symptoms and deal with issues without want real tragic kind of medical conditions.”
If the Briggs family story sounds familiar, that may be because the large brood has made headlines before.
Back in 2014, the family was profiled by the BBC — though at the time, Jeane and Paul Briggs only had 34 kids.
Jeane told the BBC that her family started growing back in 1985, after a fateful day in church changed her life forever. It was then that she was shown the photo of a 2-year-old boy, who'd been living in an orphanage in Mexico. The child was blind and had been beaten so severely that he suffered brain damage and had to be put in a body cast.
Something in Jeane drew her to the boy, and before she knew it, she'd hopped a plane to Mexico with Paul and was meeting the child face to face.
"I saw him knowing that he could be our child," Jeane told the BBC. "I knew instantly that we should adopt him."
That little boy was named Abraham -- and little did they know that his addition to the family would be just the beginning.
In the years that followed, Jeane and Paul continued to open their hearts to more children in need, adopting both babies and older children from as far away as Russia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria.
Some of the children, such as Abraham, were abused. Others were abandoned — such as Jabin Kofi and John David, who were left as infants in a bush in Ghana. But once they were safely in the care of Paul and Jeane Briggs, all were loved.
Today, the Briggs clan sure gives the Duggars a run for their money.
And yes, they're very aware that their situation is unusual, but Paul and Jeane wouldn't have it any other way.
“I just enjoy it," Jeane told Today back in 2014. "This is my career. I say to my kids, 'You’re the very air I breathe so I need you, I need that oxygen.'”
