This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
KANAB - Jonathan and Donna Bowman are model citizens.
Why? Well, because their family fits perfectly the model spelled out in Kanab's "natural-family" resolution.
The Kanab couple are legally married in a union "ordained of God" in an LDS temple. He's a breadwinner, a family-practice physician. She's a homemaker, churns her own butter. And most would agree their seven preteen kids - including triplets - make for a "full quiver" of children.
"We're really lucky to have the family we've got," Jonathan says. "But we really admire people who don't have the personal structure of a family, for the efforts they make to raise their kids and do the best they can."
That's what the Bowmans, both 38, are doing. With bills to pay, children to rear, chickens to feed and a cow to milk, these parents can't give parenting anything less. And this is one Utah union that's definitely organized.
"If we don't put an effort into that, we'll have total chaos in our home," explains Donna, Jonathan's wife of 15 years.
Indeed, though this couple may be a little bit country, they always are on a roll.
Jonathan is a family practitioner and a counselor in an LDS bishopric. He picks up the mail, sets the family budget and spruces up the yard.
Donna shops for groceries, cleans the house, cooks most meals, crafts chore charts for the children and helps with their music lessons. When she's not training her children, she's teaching cooking and sewing skills to young girls in her Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ward. She even makes butter, cheese and ice cream from the 3 1/2 gallons of milk the family taps each day from its dairy cow.
For an hour each evening, the Bowmans gather for a "tête-À-teat" on 10 acres the family owns. Dad and Mom milk the cow while the children take turns saddling and riding the family's two horses. Twelve-year-old Johanna helps with the milking. Her younger siblings step in only at the end.
"Their little hands are going to get stronger," Donna vows, "and one of these days they'll milk it."
Adds Jonathan: "Either that or we are going to get an electric milker, because I'm tired of this hand-milking stuff."
Besides caring for animals, Jonathan is building a barn.
"Part of the resolution . . . is [men] are supposed to be home builders. Well, I'm a barn builder," he says with a laugh.
Such laughter helps make the Bowmans' hurried schedule seem less harried. Before sunrise, the couple race to the gym to lift weights and tread the treadmills.
After their workout, Jonathan dresses for work and wakes the kids while Donna whips up the oatmeal, pancake batter or cracked wheat.
Before breakfast, the Bowmans feast on "the Word" with scripture reading and family prayer. After eating, Jonathan drops off triplets Jennie, Jacob and David - all first-graders - and Johanna at their schools en route to his work at Kane County Hospital. Donna tends to Nellie, Nathan and Hans until the rest of her brood comes back on the school bus.
Donna then doles out snacks and helps with homework. She used to practice music with her moppets, singing and playing the piano, cello, violin and viola with them. But after Hans was born, she decided to take a breather. Chores fill out the remainder of the afternoon - but no TV.
"We don't have time to do the things we are supposed to be doing if we are sitting and watching TV," Donna says.
When Dad gets home, it's off to the farm. After caring for the critters, there is time for reading, computer games or family movies.
On Fridays, the children have friends over. Saturdays are reserved for chores, showers or baths, and trips to St. George for shopping, movies and dining out. In Donna's "Don't Whine Gold Mine" system, children who don't pan their chores pick out gold spray-painted noodles or beans to put in jars.
"When their bottles are filled, we're going on a big trip," announces Jonathan, who also is on call at the hospital every third day.
The Bowmans are busy.
"We don't sit and chew stems of grass all day," Jonathan jests.
Neither do they judge others who don't fit the "natural-family" mold. But they are grateful to live in a town where large families are not frowned upon.
In Texas, where Jonathan did his residency and had five children at the time, people weren't always as accepting.
"People would stop us at the store and ask, 'Don't you know what causes that?' '' Jonathan recalls. "I'd say, 'Oh, yeah. I'm a doctor, and I kind of figured it out.' ''
The Bowmans figure the natural-family resolution is an ideal city leaders can cite as a guiding principle in their quest to fashion a family-friendly community. While it doesn't single out "nontraditional" families as being unnatural, Donna understands why some might take offense.
"People feel very defensive if they feel they are under attack or that they are being judged," she says.
Adds Jonathan: "We don't judge people that way, and we hope that they wouldn't judge us and say, 'Look at all the kids they have. They are overpopulating the world.' ''
Bowman family
Father: Jonathan, 38
Mother: Donna, 38
Children:Johanna, 12; triplets Jennie, Jacob and David, 7; Nellie, 4; Nathan, 2; Hans, 1
Animals: Two horses, one milk and one beef cow, baby chickens
What is a "full quiver"?
The reference harks to the Old Testament verses - found in Psalm 127 - that proclaim: "Children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." The Sutherland Institute, the Salt Lake City-based think tank that drafted the "natural-family" resolution, says the document's call that homes be "open to a full quiver of children" does not mean that everyone can have or should have lots of babies. Rather, the group argues, "couples who are able to do so physically, financially and emotionally, should be encouraged in this course."
Kanab's passage of the "natural-family" resolution has sparked much debate about the value - and values - of families. This week, The Salt Lake Tribune is profiling the mayor and four types of families with one common ingredient: love.
Monday: The resolute mayor who pushed the resolution then and defends it now.
Today: A hardworking doctor and an industrious mother who are rearing seven kids.
Wednesday: A councilwoman who still feels the sting of being unable to bear children.
Thursday: A single mother who works two jobs to support her three kids.
Friday: Two women who fell in love 16 years ago, reared a son and now care for a "full quiver" of cats.
Kanab's City Council adopted a nonbinding "natural-family" resolution, which touts marriage between men and women as "ordained of God" and conceives homes as "open to a full quiver of children." It also promotes young women becoming "wives, homemakers and mothers" and young men growing into "husbands, home builders and fathers." Since its passage Jan. 10, women's advocates, gay-rights activists and others - inside and outside of Kanab - have decried the resolution and even called for a boycott of area businesses.