NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, imagine this: having 10 boys and 9 girls around your dining room table.</s>STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: And not just because you picked up a crowd on the holidays, but every day. Here is CNN's Steve Harrigan now with the story of a hero mom in Moscow.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yelena Shishkin's new baby has no name yet. It's not easy coming up with a name when you have 19 children.</s>YELENA SHISHKIN: Natasha, Kolya, Lena, Denis, Sasha, Anya, Serezha, Vasya, Sveta, Pavlik, Katyushka, Tanyushka, Marinochka, Dimochka.</s>HARRIGAN: The Shishkin family survives on one salary: Father Alexander, a fireman, earns just $40 a month, but everybody works.</s>ALEXANDER SHISHKIN (through translator): One boy watches the cows. Another watches the pigs. The girls clean the house, dividing it into parts. Otherwise, there would be chaos.</s>HARRIGAN: It's not chaos, but it is crowded, with 10 girls and nine boys in a five-room house. Despite occasional battles for a bed and a few extra hands when you play the piano, there are some advantages to having 18 siblings.</s>OLGA SHISHKINA (through translator): We have four birthdays to celebrate in September. One every week.</s>HARRIGAN: The Shishkins are bucking a trend in Russia, a population decline of nearly six million in the past eight years has Russian politicians alarmed and scrambling to reintroduce Soviet-era rewards for big families and hero mothers. For the Shishkins, that means a new van with room for 21. Steve Harrigan, CNN, Moscow.
Sibling Unity: 'Hero' Mom in Moscow Cares for 19 Children