Steve and Jenny Valentine

This is a long post. But many of you have asked about the story of Milo's arrival. So I wanted to take time to write it out, details and all. But  for those who don't want to read the entire story with all the details, feel free to scroll through and just look at the pictures! A lot of you were shocked to hear of his arrival...so were we! (After all, we were still 25 days out from his due date when he made his appearance). I had just gone to my 36 week checkup two days prior, all was healthy and well with baby and with me and there were no signs of early labor. At that appointment, the doctor said that I was 1 cm dilated, but honesty I knew I could be at that for several weeks before seeing any progress to labor. I had a long list of nesting projects I had been slowly working on and was hoping to finish before Milo’s arrival.  Thursday morning rolled around, I realized I was beginning to show signs of possible labor nearing, but still wasn’t too alarmed just yet, after all...

Sitting down to write this blog post has been a long time coming (well at least 20 weeks or so!) But we are excited to announce that we are expecting our fourth child! Below, you will see some pictures highlighting parts of this pregnancy so far and also I talk about the name we have chosen for our little guy. Enjoy! I'm starting with this picture, because this little guy (left) pictured here with our son Isaac, I like to say is the reason we are having another baby, haha! Isaac has been smitten with this little one since he first held him as a baby two years ago and he began praying we would have another baby, specifically a boy! It's such a neat part of this story to me and I'm so thankful for our son's heart ( and friends who have cute kiddos!) This was taken right after we told the kids I was pregnant. We bought them a book titled "New Baby" and it took a while for them to clue in, because we have several friends that are currently pregnant...

MARCH was still a bit cold and we walked on our frozen lake, got a weekend away to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (our first time to Gdańsk), our first couples massage together, the beginning meetings for a new church start here, times with friends, Easter celebrations, and a positive pregnancy test (more on that later!). APRIL was still fairly cold, we cuddled, told the kids they were going to have another baby brother or sister (and got some interesting "pregnancy" snacks from our neighbor), Steve trip with our boss, bowling with the kids (and some friends) for the first time, and a family trip to Szczecin to work with some ministry partners. MAY we went on a retreat with the new church plant group with are working with and kids enjoyed a lot of time outdoors, enjoyed a visit with a missionary friend of ours who came to town, dance parties, seeing baby #4 on ultrasound, figuring out medical stuff for Jenny's pregnancy, outdoor ga...