With their family complete, Bebe and Asa began to work hard at rising to the top of their latest careers. Asa found that he had a real talent for politics and local residents had really warmed to him having a position of power.

Bebe, meanwhile, found she was really enjoying working in cookery and experimenting with new dishes.

Xenia had become a teenager, which Bebe and Asa were grateful for.

Whilst they loved all their children, four infants were incredibly demanding, and having Xenia able to help provided a huge relief.

The babies did not stay babies for long, though, and before they knew it, there were four toddlers in the household…

…Yabbie Creek…

…Yeats…

…Zoe…

…and Zolga.

The children, whilst all close, operated in pairs. The two boys were best friends, as were the girls.

Xenia loved being able to take care of her siblings, just as her elder siblings had cared for her.

Trying to juggle home, school and her part-time job in the supermarket was proving very difficult though. Bebe and Asa told her she didn’t need to take on so much, but she was determined both to be a scientific researcher and to be able to stand on her own two feet when she left home.

Sometimes, though, it was all a bit too much.

Bebe and Asa decided that, seeing as they were not planning on having any more children, it was time to pack away some of the cribs. They opened up the living area and installed new toys like a dartboard. Bebe was reluctant to let everything go into storage, so they left the smaller nursery as it was so the grandchildren could stay over. Still, the new toys meant that Xenia could let off steam and learn that life could be about fun as much as responsibility.

It wasn’t long before the little ones were also old enough to appreciate the new things they’d been bought. Yabbie Creek loved to ride his bike around town, looking for wild deer.

As soon as Yeats was old enough, he wanted to help his brother.

Yabbie Creek had a dream. He knew that when he was a baby, his mummy and daddy had adopted him, and he wanted to adopt as well, and give a home to creatures without one. He knew his parents had said no more babies, but they hadn’t said anything about animals. He’d seen lots of stray animals in the Valley and he wanted to rescue some of them and help them find a home. He shared this dream with his brother, and Yeats agreed to help.

The boys saved their pocket money to buy a special feeder and a pet bed in the hope that they would entice some strays to come and stay. Every night and day they would stay outside, hoping animals would come.

Occasionally a wild animal would cross through their garden…

…but they would never stay. The boys wished they knew what to do.

They refused to be defeated, though, and spent every day planning for one day when they would own their own pet sanctuary.

It wasn’t long before the girls grew up to childhood as well.

Although they were twins, Zoe and Zolga couldn’t look more different.

However, like their brothers, they did everything together, each looking out for the other.

The wider Populous family continued to grow. Elisabeth’s daughter, Bree, was a good schoolfriend of the boys, whilst Paige’s youngest, Siddhartha, was friendly with Xenia. Barbara’s middle children, Jerry and Kendra, were also at school with Bebe and Asa’s young ones, and she had recently given birth to baby Antoine.

Willow also had her first baby, Gwen…

…whilst Asa’s daughter Natasha had a little boy named Gavin, and Edna now had two children…

…Tiana…

…and David. Both of them had unusual eyes, much like Edna herself, and Asa felt a chill down his spine, although he couldn’t articulate why.

Even the family gnomes had a baby!

The boys finally thought all their hopes had come true when they bought a Christmas doggy basket and found a pooch sleeping in it.

But as soon as they came out to see it, the dog ran away.

Would they ever find a pet to adopt?

With the children growing up, Bebe and Asa found they had much more time for one another. They stayed up late and watched the stars, went to the cinema and ate together much more. It was nice to simply be together, although each found it strange not to be worrying about attending to night feeds or nappy changes.

Bebe even found time to tend to her long-neglected garden. She wondered what life might be like with no children to nurture. She felt a huge pang of sadness hit her as she realised she would never again feel the fluttering of a child in her womb, or hold one of her own babies in her arms for a feed. But then she thought of her newly born descendants, of the baby that was newly growing in Wendy’s womb and of the babies there might yet be from Xenia, Yabbie Creek, Yeats, Zoe and Zolga and she smiled. Her work in caring for her family would not be done for many years to come.

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64. Running a sanctuary >>