Photo Contest Winner
West Sands Adoptions 2010 Photo Contest Winner is…
Michael & Diane Kriwiel and their ten children, Teddy, Toby, Adam, Jack, Ellie, George, Elias, Emmie, Macie & Silas, with two more on the way from Ethiopia.
We asked the Kriwiel’s what makes their family of 12, going on 14, work, and here is what they had to say:
Family Motto – Go Big or Go Home (taken from my son’s high school football program last year but we repeat it often!!)
United our family: a intentional decision to put family first; a church fellowship who is like-minded with whom we’ve developed and honed our parenting skills; my husband’s job which allows him freedom to coach our kids sports teams and allows me to stay at home; a love of God who is our ultimate role model.
Favorite Activity: We are a very sports-minded family and we go to each child’s games and cheer them on. We especially like high school football and have two playing this year.
Favorite meal: We have two: One is Crescent Chicken: roasted chicken and 1/2 slice of American cheese wrapped in a Pillsbury crescent roll, layered in a pan and topped with chicken soup and milk. I pride myself on from-scratch cooking and this one just makes me cringe!!! The other one is French Toast Casserole: Leftover bread (hamburger and hotdog buns, rolls, biscuits, sandwich bread) torn into bits and layered in a pan, topped with beaten eggs and milk with a bit of vanilla. Then I melt a cup of brown sugar with a stick of butter and spread that over the top. I make it on Saturday night, cover, and put in the fridge then bake it on Sunday morning before church. We top it with a little syrup.
We chose to start adopting five years ago when we heard about twin girls, (we had 5 boys and one girl at the time!) I begged Mike to let me call about them and although we didn’t get them, it did open our eyes and hearts to the fact that although we were done having biological children, we weren’t done having children. We had a little more room in the house, a little more money in our pockes and and little more room in our hearts. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d go on to adopt five more. It’s been an amazing journey.
