Bethany Hamilton and her husband, Adam Dirks, have their hands full with four kids.
“Here we are, four babies later. I have three boys and a girl, and I want more,” Hamilton, 36, said on the Monday, April 13, episode of the “Stay True” podcast. “My husband currently does not. So, I’m praying over that.”
She added, “Come on, Lord, can you go with my will, Lord? We’ll see what happens, though. That’s how much I love being a mom: I want to have more.”
Hamilton and Dirks, who have been married since 2013, are parents of sons Tobias, 10, Wesley, 7, and Micah, 4, as well as daughter Alaya, 2.
“A lot of my life is, like, directed by one God and his word and what I believe he calls upon my life, but also some of the values that I believe in,” the pro surfer told podcast host Madison Prewett. “For example, we’re homeschooling our children, and we’re very integrated as a family. My husband and I teamwork a lot of the ‘Bethany’ [promotional] things that we do and adventuring on other endeavors, as well.”
Hamilton, who lost her arm in a 2003 shark attack when she was 13 years old, is raising her family in her native Hawaii.
“I was homeschooled from sixth grade on, and I absolutely loved it for me,” she said. “Where I lived the schooling was very below average. … I was also a little professional athlete at a young age. I was already traveling internationally at like 13, and then my first international travel was [at] 17 without my parents. I was very already well-traveled and already kind of heading on a trajectory, so homeschool really allowed for that.”
By the time Hamilton began “envisioning” future motherhood, she hoped to similarly homeschool her own kids.
“It’s definitely challenging, like, we probably have way too much on our plate,” she acknowledged. “Sometimes both my husband and I feel like we’re drowning, but at the same time, my mom and dad live in our guest house and they’re really close and I love them and they’re integrated into our life.”
According to Hamilton, Dirks’ parents and her brothers also live nearby and are able to pitch in as needed.
“We’re all raising children together and it’s just the sweetest setup,” the athlete added to Prewett, 30. “But definitely at four [kids], I’m, like, ‘Whoa, these last couple years were a lot trying to manage all the things.’”
Hamilton further gushed that her kids are “well-established” already.
“The way I value education is kind of different than maybe other people might, like, I look at
my children and I’m like, ‘OK, are you thriving in life beyond how well you’re doing in math, writing or the subjects, but are you thriving in life?’ I see them and I think they’re thriving, like, they’re very self-driven, they read a ton and within their education, like, they have some challenges, but who doesn’t?”
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