AND THE WINNER IS..........

 He he he.....ok so with a new camera that I hve only had a few weeks.....I totally crashed this picture.  All you can see is my messy desk with a white bowl......  I can assure you the "strips of paper with names" are in the bowl!! 

 Here is my lovely assistant.  I know - she is GORGEOUS!

 Making sure to look at the camera......  what you wanted to know who won the free t-shirt?

 Well....I have some other pictures from our day out at Islands of Adventure.....

 Elizabeth asked what the thing above her head was.  I said it was to suck out your brains.  She looked at me and said mommy quite being silly.  ;) 

 Andrew you will get a HUGE belly ache eating all that!!!

 Loved all the Christmas decorations!

 Awww......Muberry Street!

 Stopping to have a snack!

 Watch out Joshua those teeth bite :)

 Here is Joanna's dance moves.

 Awwww......

 Look at those faces. 

 There are sooo many times I look at the faces and think- HOW DID WE GET SOOO BLESSED????

I know you want to know who won the t-shirt, but I have a story of Blessing to share!  I know - sorry ;)

We were planning on our trip to the park this Saturday.  We bought year long passes for our vacation this year- really the only expense besides driving the hourish away.  But the great thing is they let you bring in food!!!  Like as much as you want!  So we brought leftovers, snacks, and of course drinks for Joanna.  We splurged for the whole .80 a drink and got a few throughout the day.  Along with plenty of water too!!

But, literally as we were about ready to head out someone choose to bless us with $15 of Adventure Bucks.  Which you can spend on anything you want in the park!  We thought about it for a bit, and then I said if we used it to offset the crazy cost of a meal here we could stay until the park closes at 8pm.  So we chose a cheaper meal (burgers and chicken strips), split the meals, ate some snacks with it, and it only cost around $20 for our whole family!!!  Not bad.

It was great fun to walk around at night!  The kids loved seeing all the lights of the park, and getting to go on rides in the pitch black.  I have to say that sometimes blessings may not seem much to those who give, but to those who receive - IT IS HUGE!!!!!!!  It was a FUN BLESSING to get to stay at the park!  The kids had sooo much fun!

I am soo VERY VERY VERY THANKFUL for sooo many BLESSINGS in my LIFE and not just because it is Thanksgiving this week.  I am just thankful.  For all those that have given our family- little gifts, big gifts, paid for a dessert for us at the mall, given us shirts, sent us money for adoptions, prayed for us, visited us or let us stay at their homes, paid for part of a meal out (which is seriously a rare treat), given us coupons, prayed for us some more, and stopped to talk with us to ask questions about our family- what an opportunity to share about adoption, family, value of life, etc.  So thankful that God chose us for a life that most don't understand, but that we LOVE SOOO MUCH!!!!

If you would have told me we would have 8 children and still adding- I would have called you CRAZY!  But now.....God's changed our hearts, our habits, our lives into something soo different, so wonderful it is just too amazing sometimes to try to put into words.  But I try - here on this blog.


OK AND THE WINNER IS..............LORRAINE PATTERSON!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!  Thank you EVERYONE for helping us get the word out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are soo excited to see what this journey brings to our lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

***If you haven't checked out Lorraine's blog- GO!  God has done amazing things in her family as well.  Miracle after Miracle....and they too are working on bringing home 2 more miracles!!!  They have many Blessings of their own and it is sooo wonderful to watch!