Steve and Jenny Valentine

Steve and I spent some time reflecting last week about our past year here in Orlando.  It seems amazing to me that we have already been here over a year now!  Steve flew back from Denver on July 3 and the following day, July 4, marked the one year anniversary of our arrival into Florida, where we were welcomed by family and friends with sparklers in the rain :) A lot has happened in this past year and we couldn't be more thankful for how the Lord has worked in our lives.  Highlights definately include: Our 4th niece, Charlotte Grace Valentine, was born two weeks after we arrived (today is her first birthday).  Steve and I remember waiting anxiously at the hospital with her grandpa and uncle Chris all day and enjoyed meeting her upon arrival into the world! The Lord providing a job for Steven that would be part time and perfect hours and pay for his first year in Seminary. The Lord providing a job for me working in an organziation that aims to magnify the Lord...

Hanging out with new friends, Joy and Traci :) Lauren & I took Charlotte to the pool for the first time, she had a great time! Reformation Drive is where RTS is located Seal of the seminary Steve during new student orientation Steve & I outside the seminary Steve and Rob took pictures/video of our Friend's Brett & Christine getting engaged! Valentine ladies! Steve & I in Celebration hanging out with our cute niece, Charlotte :) Steve and his many books for the fall semester!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks....so let's REWIND a little! A little about Steve's job: Shortly after Steve was offered and signed the paperwork for the tutoring job...he found out that there would be a conflict in his school/work schedule. We found out that he would lose his financial assistance if he wasn't taking all his classes (to make him full time) on campus. In order for him to work the tutoring job, he would have to take some classes online and some on campus (still being full time but not all classes on campus). Well the day we found out he'd lose his financial assistance from RTS if he did this, we started to wonder what we should do. That day at lunch he received a call for an interview at another job and told them he'd call back later after speaking with me about it. We started to weigh the options and came to the conclusion that it really wouldn't hurt for him to go to the interview and see what would happen. Plus the schedule wo...

Steve started Seminary today...he goes to Greek I M-F for the next two weeks! I'm so excited for him and can't wait to hear how his first day went today! Still on the job hunt...being patient in the search :) and trying not to get discouraged. Last week, Steve had a job interview with a company where he would tutor/mentor kids before and after school...the lady offered him 3 different positions there on the spot...he has to let her know by the end of this week whether he wants to accept a position or not. He wanted to meet with his advisor today while he was up at school so that he could see if he could re-arrange his schedule to fit with the work hours and still be a full time student. We'll know more by the end of this week what direction we decide to go! We were definitely grateful for that glimmer of hope with him having an interview and being offered a job...God is displaying Himself to us daily and we try to constantly reflect on how good He has been and conti...

Valentine Family: Bob, Jeannine, Rob, Lauren, Charlotte (strapped on!) me and Steve Our first Alligator sighting! Welcoming baby Charlotte into the world! The beautiful sunrise at Daytona beach. Just a glimpse of our lives right now... We have been in Orlando for three weeks now and it has flown by fast! Mostly because there has been a lot going on, with the birth of our newest neice, Charlotte Grace Valentine, and family being in town. We have enjoyed many moments with family members and little Charlotte and look forward to watching her grow! In the midst of all the busyness, we are getting acclimated to life in Florida. We have enjoyed many moments of firsts and have also shared some tears together as we learn and grow more into Christ-likeness through each of these experiences. Some of those firsts such as seeing alligators, going to the beach and watching dolphins jump in the ocean and trying to guess what type of lizzard is crawling on our balcony have kep...

So we've been here a week now, but just now getting around to writing about our first week here in Orlando... We left on Friday, July 3, and stayed the night in Atlanta, Georgia with my step mom. We enjoyed our night there. That was a looong day in the car! 15 hours from Dallas to ATL because we went up and down, up and down hills through Alabama on into Georgia...and the moving truck was not a fan of going up and down big hills! We arrived last Saturday, July 4, just in time for dinner with Steve's brother and sister in law. We moved into our apartment on Sunday afternoon and have spent this past week trying to get unpacked and settled into our apartment as well as trying to get licenses and license plates. We are officially Floridians! The weather is great here...when you leave Texas and it's 105...90 degrees doesn't seem to bad! It rains most everyday...not sure I'm a big fan of that yet, but it is pretty to watch the rain come down outside our apartme...