The Duck Commander Family
Page 12
THAT’S WHEN JOHN LUKE STARTED CRYING. “HE DOESN’T HAVE RABIES, I KNOW HE DOESN’T. IT’S NOT THE BAT’S FAULT!”
As John Luke got older and started hunting with Willie, he took to it naturally. I guess it’s in his blood, as they say. The first time John Luke killed a deer, he was so proud to be able to feed our family. We ate on it for weeks. He was becoming a man and fully understood the circle of life. I’m so proud of the young man he has become. He is a leader at his school and at our church and an incredible big brother to his younger siblings.
Our daughter Sadie Carroway was as healthy as she could be. I had her in the summer when Camp Ch-Yo-Ca’s sessions were in full swing. Her delivery was easy, and I was at the camp with her when she was only a few days old. The kids passed her around and loved on her. I was a young mom and didn’t worry a bit about germs. Maybe that’s why she never gets sick: she was exposed to everything with all those little hands touching her as a baby, and she developed immunities. Who knows? She was like the little camp mascot. She was a happy baby who reached for her bed when she was tired. But she seemed to have a stronger spirit than John Luke. We could tell from an early age that she was going to be a competitive little one. She loves sports and had a baseball birthday party at two years old! She’s got a lot of her daddy in her. She loves to entertain and make people laugh.
When Sadie was only four years old, she was already doing impersonations of all the family members—just like her dad. She also went through a stage where she would preach. It was the cutest thing we had ever seen. We have a video of her preaching where she says, “It doesn’t matter if you are a teacher or a stealer, a policeman or a jail person. God still loves you, and He wants you to be in heaven with Him. He doesn’t want you to go down there with the devil. He loves you and He will forgive all your sins. All you have to do is ask Him. . . .” It goes on and on. She sings some songs, then she breaks into a cheer. “Let’s give it up for God!” she shouts. She had so much wisdom for such a little one. Willie nicknamed her “the Original” from the time she could talk. It fits her perfectly.
WHEN SADIE WAS ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD, SHE WAS ALREADY DOING IMPERSONATIONS OF ALL THE FAMILY MEMBERS—JUST LIKE HER DAD.
Then came Will and Bella. These two little ones who had come into our life around the same time were quite the handful! Will was a very happy baby. He would literally wake up laughing. We loved to listen to him talking to himself in his bed for a while when he first woke up. He was a very easy baby; then he became a very busy toddler!
Bella wasn’t so easy as a baby but is the most fun child one could ever have. She contracted salmonella when she was only three weeks old. It was terrifying! We never found out for sure how she got it. There were some other cases of salmonella from formula that had been reported, but we had also picked up a turtle on the side of the road coming home from church that day. Turtles can sometimes carry salmonella. She, of course, didn’t touch the turtle, but one of us could have touched it and then passed it to her. We just weren’t sure. Anyway, I was holding her that night when all of a sudden she felt warm. A three-week-old baby should never have a fever.
I knew immediately something was wrong. We rushed her to the hospital. They didn’t know what was wrong with her, so they did a spinal tap to make sure she didn’t have meningitis. It was horrible to see our little baby go through that ordeal. By the next morning she was having severe diarrhea. It took several days before they figured out exactly what was wrong with her and gave her antibiotics she needed to make her better. She was so sick and was in the hospital for about a week. She lost weight and was the tiniest little thing, but eventually made a full recovery and we were very thankful!
Poor thing, though, she had stomach trouble for about a year after this. She just couldn’t hold down anything. I had to feed her every three hours, even through the night, until she was about nine months old, just to try to put some meat on her bones. She cried so much she was perpetually hoarse. But she was the most beautiful little thing and had the most confident little spirit. She started walking at nine months old. Those little toothpick legs didn’t look like they could hold her up, but they did, and once she started walking, she was off.
Like I said, the babies were only ten months apart, so Will wasn’t even walking when Bella was born. But once they both started walking, there was no stopping them. We called them Destructo 1 and Destructo 2. I used to tell people that one would raise the window and the other would climb out. This was our life for a while. I couldn’t keep my eyes on them enough to keep them out of trouble. Bella seemed to have a perpetual knot on her head and our house was always a wreck. If Will and Bella were left alone for any length of time, I can promise you something was going to be destroyed. They would squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube and smear it all over the bathroom mirror, get into the pantry and dump all the cereal out of the boxes—and this was all before eight A.M.!
ONCE WILL AND BELLA STARTED WALKING, THERE WAS NO STOPPING THEM. WE CALLED THEM DESTRUCTO 1 AND DESTRUCTO 2.
We could not take those two anywhere. They were born with the full confidence that they knew exactly where they were going when their legs hit the floor, and they were off. I couldn’t keep up with them. I never put them on a leash, but I probably should have. I carried them as much as I could, one on each hip. People would say, “How do you do that?” I told them it was better than the alternative; if I put them down, they would both go in different directions and it was all over. Keeping them on my hip was the only way I could stay in control. Once they got too big for me to carry, I would make them hold my hand. They would try so hard to squirm out of my hand, but I would just squeeze and make them hang on.
Korie says that once she could tell all the kids, “Go brush your teeth and put your PJs on,” and they could actually do it by themselves, she knew we would survive! For a while there, she was so consumed with babies that I don’t know how she did anything else. But she did. We would end up most nights with at least three of the four kids in our bed. Our rule was that none of the kids could start out in the bed with us, but if they woke up in the night, they could come get in our bed. This was very different than when I was growing up. We would have never climbed in bed with our parents. Phil was not the snuggling type. But it was fun waking up to all the love and laughter, even if our backs suffered for it. Our babies were growing along with the Duck Commander business and our website, and I was starting to do some traveling with Dad for his speaking engagements. It was busy, but it was fun! I loved watching the kids change and grow into their own unique little people.
Korie: We have one more daughter who came to us from a unique place. Growing up, our family traveled a lot and I always thought it was important for kids to experience different cultures and learn from people who grew up differently than them. Of course, it’s tough to travel with four little ones, so I thought I would bring someone to us. We decided to take in an exchange student. I didn’t know at the time she would become such an awesome big sister to our kids and we would become her American family forever and always.
Rebecca Ann Lo joined our family when she was sixteen years old. She came as an exchange student from Taiwan and must have wondered what she’d gotten herself into joining a family of bearded men who hunted for a living. She was the youngest of four in her family in Taiwan, but when she joined our home, she became the oldest. Also, she lost her father at a young age and I think having a strong father figure in Willie really helped her growth. Our kids were young when Rebecca joined us in the summer of 2004, and they were so excited to welcome her into our family. We made signs welcoming her to America, and when she stepped off the plane, the kids could barely contain their excitement. Will hid behind a chair because he just didn’t know what to do. Bella went up and held her hand, and John Luke and Sadie started talking a hundred miles an hour. They had a new playmate and were eager to tell her everything there was to know about our family. We quickly realized she couldn’t understand a word we said!
She had learned some English in school in Taiwan, but with our Southern accents, Rebecca just could not understand us. Somehow she and I figured out how to communicate, and we bonded. She stuck to me like glue for a while. If someone asked her a question, she would look to me to answer. I read her children’s books at night and taught her English through reading the menus at restaurants! I remember the first day I took her to school; I literally had to pry her fingers off my arm. It was like having another kindergartener. She was scared to death. But by the end of the school year, she was speaking English well, with even a little bit of a Louisianan accent. And we fell in love with her and didn’t want her to leave. We told her that if she wanted to come back for her senior year, she was more than welcome. Her mom said no at first. She had, of course, missed her daughter and wanted her to come home. But a few weeks before the next school year started, Rebecca called and said excitedly, “Mom said I can come!” She booked her plane ticket back to Louisiana and has been here ever since.
When Rebecca came to live with us, everybody thought I looked like Johnny Damon, an outfielder with the Boston Red Sox, who had a big ol’ beard. Korie’s dad, Johnny, even gave me a life-size cutout of Damon, which I kept in my office. Well, that entire first year that Rebecca lived with us, I told her I used to be a professional baseball player. She went to a party for foreign exchange students and told everyone that I was an ex–Major League Baseball player! She kept telling everyone, “Willie is very famous.” She thought it was the coolest thing and even told her mother and sister I was famous. I finally broke the news to Rebecca that I wasn’t really a baseball player. Fortunately, she still loved me anyway. I can only imagine her family’s surprise when they went on the Internet and found out whom she was really living with!
After Duck Commander signed a licensing deal with Weaver, which makes rifle and shotgun optical scopes, I wanted to tour their manufacturing center in Taiwan. We took Rebecca as our translator and toured Taiwan. I promised Rebecca I would eat something weird while I was there. I took a small bite of fried chicken feet, but there wasn’t any meat. I’m not sure how the Taiwanese eat those. It’s a chicken’s foot. I couldn’t stomach eating the century egg, which is another Chinese tradition. They preserve duck, chicken, or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for several months. The egg yolk turns dark green and smells like ammonia. I’ve eaten some pretty crazy stuff in my life, but that wasn’t one of them!
Rebecca’s mom and sister came to visit us for a couple of weeks one time, and her mom cooked delicious Taiwanese food for us. Rebecca has been back to Taiwan a couple of times to visit her family there. But we are her American mom and dad. We are family. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in fashion design and merchandising, and we are so proud of everything she has accomplished. More important, we are proud of the beautiful Christian lady she has become and the great big sister she has been to our kids. We love her and are thankful God saw fit to place her in our home.
ARMADILLO EGGS
You didn’t think I was going to give you a recipe for chicken feet, did you? I don’t really know why these are called armadillo eggs, but they are, and they are tasty. This is a base for many dishes I make. Anything can be added to it at any time. I have used cherries, jams, candied jalapeños, real mozzarella slivers, and many different kinds of meat. If you’re not sure it’s done after grilling or broiling your bacon, put it in a black pot, add a little butter or olive oil over the top, cover for ten or fifteen minutes, and let steam.
6 to 8 whole jalapeños, sliced
1 package cream cheese
2 pounds breakfast sausage, formed into 6 to 8 patties
1 pound thin-sliced bacon
1 stick of butter, melted
1. Slice jalapeños in half lengthwise.
2. Use one half of each jalapeño for each armadillo egg. Scoop out seeds and veins and then fill each half with cream cheese.
3. Mold sausage patty around jalapeño, making sure to cover the entire jalapeño pepper.
4. Wrap each armadillo egg with a slice of bacon.
5. Cook “eggs” on open grill until bacon is crispy and sausage is thoroughly cooked, about ten to fifteen minutes.
6. Remove eggs from grill and cover with melted butter.
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FAST FOOD
CHILDREN, OBEY YOUR PARENTS IN THE LORD, FOR THIS IS RIGHT. “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER”—WHICH IS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT WITH A PROMISE—“SO THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH YOU AND THAT YOU MAY ENJOY LONG LIFE ON THE EARTH.”
—EPHESIANS 6:1–3
Korie: After people watch Duck Dynasty, I often get comments on Twitter and from fans that I come into contact with about how well-mannered our kids are. In the South, traditionally children are expected to say “Yes, ma’am” and “No, sir” to adults. It’s important for children to show respect for their elders, but I’m afraid that even in the South, that is something that is fading from our society. I’m really proud of our kids for the way they behave, the way they act toward adults, and their manners in general.
When the Duck Dynasty crew was here filming the scene where Phil had our kids clean up an area of his land to make a football field, I think the crew members expected our kids to be griping and complaining about having to do it. But our kids would never do that, at least not within earshot of their papaw Phil. Even if they didn’t want to do it, they would never complain to their grandfather if he asked them to do something. That’s not the way they were raised.
In the Robertson house, kids are expected to fit in with the family and do what the family does. Whenever I need the kids to do something, I always say, “All right, kids, it’s family cleanup time,” “family wash-the-car time,” or “family clean-out-the-garage time.” You get the idea. When I announce “family time,” everyone is expected to join in. It’s nonnegotiable, and you don’t get paid for it. You just do it, because you are part of the family.
IN THE ROBERTSON HOUSE, KIDS ARE EXPECTED TO FIT IN WITH THE FAMILY AND DO WHAT THE FAMILY DOES.
Not that our kids don’t have plenty of activities of their own. But sometimes when a family’s life totally revolves around the kids, parents can start to feel like their children are a burden. We’ve never felt that way. Our lives didn’t end when we brought children into the world. When our kids were younger, I just put them on my hip and took them with me wherever I went. If it meant they had to fall asleep on my shoulder while I was answering e-mails or filling orders, then that’s just the way it would be. Kids only know what you teach them. If you let the whole world revolve around them when they are younger, when they realize that’s not really the way the world works, it’s not very pretty.
Having said all that, somebody told me once that they’d never seen anyone watch their children as much as we do. We’ll sit around at night just watching them doing tricks and performing for us. That was something I brought from my side of the family. My family absolutely loves to watch our kids perform. It’s really one of our favorite things to do. I think enjoying your children and delighting in them is a gift that you give your children. It’s a way to show them that they are loved and valued. Plus, there’s nothing cuter than a three-year-old showing off her latest dance moves.
Hey, wait a minute, I will never forget being in the eighth grade and one Friday night telling Phil about “break dancing.” Phil said, “What’s that?” I told him, “Let me show ya.” I put my boom box down, put in my cassette of Midnight Star’s “No Parking on the Dance Floor,” and did an entire dance while Phil watched from his recliner. He seemed impressed. “That’s some kinda moves, Will,” he told me. “Not sure what that is, but at least it’s entertaining.” So even the Robertson side did a little watchin’!
Korie: Another thing we’ve always tried to teach our children is that people are more important tha
n things. If one of the kids is watching TV and somebody wants to talk, you stop watching TV and listen to them. You never put more importance on a thing than you do on a person. This is hard for older siblings to learn when there are little ones in the family destroying your favorite toys. But it was a lesson we were intent on teaching. If you are going to teach these tough lessons, though, you have to model them in your own life. When your neighbor borrows your lawn mower and tears it up, you have to act with love and forgiveness. It’s in the little things and the big things. Your children are always watching.
WE’VE ALWAYS TRIED TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN THAT PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THINGS.
This was a hard lesson for me because I came from such a poor family. When I was a child, you really took pride in having any possessions. But Korie and her family could always go out and buy a replacement when something got lost or broke. She actually taught me a lot about this lesson in our early marriage days. I was used to protecting my stuff from my brothers like the Secret Service.
Korie: Willie and I have always thought that your home should be the happiest place for your family. If you’re excited when your kids or husband walks in the front door, then you’ll have a much happier family. A lot of people don’t make it a habit to do that. They go to work and give their best to the outside world because they know if they’re negative or griping or complaining, they might lose their job. They’re not going to make a sale with a frown on their faces, so they’re always putting on their best smile. It should be that way at home too. I always tell our children that the people they love the most and the people who love them the most are their family. So your family should be the people you treat the best.