Cyndi Bird faithfully writes to four missionaries every week. She sends care packages in shoe boxes and thinks fondly of them in their absence.

But she's not a twitterpated Laurel. She's their mother.

Half of Cyndi and Randy Bird's eight children are simultaneously serving Mormon missions across the world and will be until October, when their son Matthew comes home from his mission in Dallas, Texas.

"We just didn't think that we would ever have them out at the same time," Cyndi said.

The Birds, of Wenatchee, Wash., never thought they'd have more than two children in the mission field at the same time. But in June, when fraternal twins Michael and Mitchell entered the Missionary Training Center, an older brother and an older sister had beaten them to it within the past two years.

Matthew was initially called to Ukraine in the summer of 2007, but suffered health problems. After taking a few months to recuperate, he left in October 2007 for the Texas Dallas Spanish-speaking Mission.

Nicole had initially decided against going on a mission when she was 21, but after graduating from BYU last May, she surprised her parents by putting in her papers. She entered the MTC in December 2008 to serve in the China Hong Kong Mission.

Mitchell was called to the Honduras San Pedro Sula Mission, and Michael to the Chile Concepcion Mission.

Cyndi said a special feeling inhabited the family's home when the oldest three children served missions. It's only been amplified now that the next four are out at once.

"There's just a feeling as a parent having a missionary out there that they're doing the right thing, they're in the right place, they're doing the most important thing they could ever, ever do -- sharing the gospel, bringing it to people who don't have those blessings that we have," she said. "Just knowing that is probably the biggest blessing that there is."

The Birds had eight children in 11 years, and keeping track of all their schedules meant staying very organized when they were young. Cyndi has reverted to using charts to keep track of her kids' schedules, listing when each missionary's preparation day falls, when they can check their e-mail and when they can write. The system is a throwback to a time when she wrote down which child needed gym clothes on what day, which ones had music lessons and who had a spelling bee.

"I guess I'm back to charts again," she said.

The Birds are no strangers to serving missions in foreign lands. In addition to his seven missionary children, Randy and each of his five siblings served full-time missions. Randy's parents served three missions together, and after his father passed away, his mother served in Mexico City. Cyndi's parents have served two missions in the Idaho Boise Mission office.

"It's been wonderful to see our families turn to missionary work," Cyndi said. "It's been just a great group effort."

Having sent so many children off, the Birds can't help but focus on missionary work themselves.

"Our minds are more on missionary work," Cyndi said. "We're just constantly thinking about it and that's been huge."

Cyndi and her husband look forward to serving a mission together someday.

"We want to serve as many missions as we can," she said. "I don't feel as prepared, but I really want to focus on that."

Cyndi says she feels a little badly for their youngest, Michelle, who leaves for BYU in the fall. While her parents have assured her that there's no expectation to serve a full-time mission, Michelle inevitably has felt some pressure to round out the number and make it an even eight missionaries from the family.

With such a missionary tradition, you can't blame her for feeling it, Cyndi said.

"The poor girl."

E-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com