Picture: Valerie Arthur

The Smith family keeps thinking this is some kind of joke. But as hard as it is to believe, the family of brothers and sisters say they know their $429.6 million payout is real.

Valerie, Marsha, Steven, Jacqueline, Tracy, Kathy, Rene and their mother, Pearlie, revealed themselves as the eight winners of the Powerball jackpot on Thursday. The Smith family, who primarily hail from Trenton with two coming from Newark, identified themselves as the shareholders of the ticket while their mother, Pearlie, purchased it.

The numbers came to her mother in a dream, said Valerie Arthur, who is retired from the N.J. Department of Corrections. She spoke for the family during a Friday afternoon press conference. "Divine intervention provided the winning numbers to my mother in a dream," she said. They plan on tithing 10 percent of the winnings to religious causes. "Friday the 13th is now a blessed day."

Pearlie Smith, a pastor at a Trenton church, rarely gambles. But, her daughter explained, the winning numbers — 05, 25, 26, 44 and 66 with 09 as the Powerball number— popped into her head and felt "compelled to listen to the intuition."

Valerie Arthur said her sister, Marsha, had a hard time convincing her on the phone when they actually announced the numbers and discovered they won.

"I said, 'Stop April fooling me and get off my phone,' and she said 'I'm not. It's May. It's May,' " Arthur said. The Smith family said they have plenty of student loans and mortgages to pay off, so they're looking at this as a welcome gift.