Steve and Jenny Valentine

Sometimes our days don't go as planned, and you just have to go with the flow. This Valentine's day has been one of those days. Sunday, a day when we would usually be headed off to church, we find ourselves waking up to sick children who can't keep their breakfast down! As I stood in the midst of the sickies and tears, flipping heart shaped eggs...I looked over at Steve and said "happy Valentine's day, I love you" . Sometimes special days are filled with sickness and "not as planned" moments...but despite it all, we are reminded of God's great love for us in Christ Jesus! So HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all our family and friends, may you find true love and contentment in Jesus today. And if you didn't get our Valentine letter yet in your email today, please message us and we will send it to you. Just a few pictures from our annual Valentine photo shoot a few weeks back, enjoy!

Each year, we send out Valentine cards (instead of a yearly Christmas card and letter).  Here is a glimpse of this years letter and pictures...Enjoy! H- Hope, according to the biblical definition, is not used for wishful thinking. It is a firm confidence in the promises of God. We enjoy singing hymns in our household, a favorite is, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less". Several phrases throughout the hymn proclaim the hope we can easily celebrate day in and day out. “My hope is built on nothing less, Than Jesus' blood and righteousness...In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil…When every earthly prop gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay… When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found, Clothed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne! On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.” So what do you hope in? O- On the Go, Steve’s job at Converge Worldwide keeps him busy! He tra...

As our tradition has been from when we first got married, here is a letter from us on Valentine's day! A Year of Growing G -Growing seems to be the best word to pick as a theme for our past year, in more ways than one! Growing through difficult moments, growing in our marriage, Karis growing like a weed and watching Jenny's belly grow with little baby Isaac inside of her! God has been faithful through each moment and we can’t help but be thankful for His goodness to us. R -Rest is not something we have felt much of over the past few months. Steve’s job keeps him fairly busy and with Jenny being pregnant and several sicknesses traveling from each of us during the entire month of January, we have found ourselves a bit worn out lately! We decided that it would be good to take a much needed break before baby number two is born. So the first weekend of February, Karis had fun at her first sleep over with her cousins and aunt and uncle! Meanwhile, Steve enjoyed a day of play...

Karis 5 months Valentine Family Since we have been married, Steve and I enjoy writing a Valentine letter (instead of a Christmas letter). We have always picked a word that we feel has been relevant for our past year as our guide of what to write about.  GRACE is our word choice this Valentine's day.  Enjoy! G-Grace. This could easily be described as the one word that we base our lives around. Grace is a Greek word which if transliterated into English, would be Karis. God has shown us much grace by sending his son to be sin on our behalf and save us from our sin. We also see God’s grace in the day to day life experiences. One of those ways was by gracing us with our daughter in August, whom we named Karis because we wanted to give her a name that would reflect what God was doing in our lives. Jenny has picked a favorite hymn of ours to sing to Karis on a nightly basis as part of a bed time routine. It would be our hope that Karis will know the meaning of her ...

Refined-We feel like this has been our season of life-refinement. Like a silversmith refines silver through heat and pressure we also are refined spiritually through different stresses and trials. No this is not an attempt at making a joke about the hot and humid climate in Florida! Over this past year the Lord has called us out of comfort and led us on a journey of great refinement. We are thankful that the Lord has planned this time in our lives because in the process He has brought much dross to the surface to purify us in order to glorify Himself and make us more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Even though we have been through many challenging circumstances since moving to Florida…like wondering how we were going to pay the bills at times…we have found great joy in celebrating the fact that the Lord has always provided for ALL our needs. We have never gone without the necessities and even some of our desires. Even in writing this letter, the Lord provided a way for ...

Below is the letter we sent out for Valentine's day this year: O Obedient was the word that kept coming to mind as we started to think of ideas for this letter. What is obedience? Obedient can be defined as obeying or willing to obey; complying with or submissive to authority. You may be wondering why obedient? Steve and I have found ourselves in a place where we desire to live as obediently as we can, by God’s grace, in submission to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our desire as husband and wife is to honor the Lord with each and every decision we make. Not the type of obedience that is done out of ritual or for religious purposes, but rather, Biblical, God honoring obedience. In this we have found joy and great reward. B Being the only girl growing up (Jenny of course), as well as the youngest; I was treated very special and always made to feel very important on Valentine’s Day! I want to tell you why Valentine’s Day is one of my absolute favorites! My parents tried t...