Along Came You-- Review and Giveaway

Since it's nearing Christmas, I am receiving a lot of opportunities to review products. I've had some questions as to whether or not I would save the products for Christmas gifts for my girls. While it would be very nice to get my girls Christmas presents in this way, the whole point of the reviews is that companies can hopefully sell these products for Christmas.. So, we've gotten busy trying these things out..

Zondervan Publishing is one of my favorite companies that I've worked with. Adam has been doing reviews for them for a while. He slipped his contact my blog address and I got an e-mail from her saying, "just go to our site and let me know what books you're interested in and when you read them, let me know if you'd like to do a giveaway". Um, AWESOME? I still find myself asking, what's the catch? Am I going to get a charge on my credit card if I don't return it within the 60 day trial period? But, no charge. It still blows my mind that companies give me things just for me to give them my opinions on them. It's like a marketers dream. Anyway, This allows me to pick out, up front, books that had topics that I was interested in and could be pretty sure I could give an enthusiastic review. So I picked out three books and got them just a couple of days later.

"Along Came You, did not disappoint". This truly may have become my favorite children's book of all time.. Except, I'm pretty sure that it's benefits are more for me than my children. It is definitely my favorite parenting book of all time. I don't know about you, but in a world where success is often measured by dollars, I sometimes need reminded of the value of the job I'm doing. While I do think that this book serves the purpose of helping children see the sacrifices a parent makes, more importantly, it was reminder to me of the priceless benefits that come from doing such a sacred job that pays in love. The book's only downfall is that I can't seem to read it with out becoming a big emotional mess.

It's beautifully illustrated pages along with the author's fresh perspective of being a mother left me with a reminder of the amazing joy that being a parent provides and a heart much bigger than, before children, I ever felt capable of having. In "Along Came You", The writing clearly illustrates that often, simple phrases carry such great meaning: "Before you, my home was decorated in style. After you, my home is decorated in love. Before you, the biggest thrill at the amusement park was riding the roller coaster. After you, the biggest thrill is seeing your face when you are finally tall enough to ride. Before you, I slept all night long. After you, I wake to watch you sleeping.

But, you really can't get the full impact that book presents without seeing the words along with the illustrations. So click below to see a sample.

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Now, for your chance to win a copy of your own. To enter, simply comment, leaving a way to contact you in the case that you win. For an additional entry, blog about the giveaway or post it on facebook and come back and leave a link to your post. The giveaway will end on Wed. Nov. 18th. The winner will be chosen at random using www.random.org.

Blessings,
Dana