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...

Welcome to the chaos of our life in transition! As I sit in a quiet small apartment right now, a few things are going through my mind: 1. I'm thankful for a "permanent" place to stay after a few long months of travel with three small children. Lord Willing, the next move we make will be to Poland! 2. When am I going to finish unpacking all the mess? I mean, you saw the picture above right?! (Sigh) 3. Thank you Lord for a few quiet moments while children nap! 4. A song. None But Jesus to be more specific. If you're not familiar with this song, here are the lyrics (really, I recommend that you Google it and listen): In the quiet, in the stillness I know that you are God In the secret of your presence I know there I am restored When you call I won't refuse Each new day, again I'll choose There is no one else for me None but Jesus Crucified to set me free Now I live to bring Him praise In the chaos, in confusion I know you're sovereign...

We were at our weekly neighborhood playgroup this morning when my "usually happy" little girl began having a meltdown...to me this is just a normal occurrence, to my neighbor mommy friends it was surprising. See most of the time they (along with tons of people I interact with) often comment about how happy my kids "always" are and so they were a little surprised to see one of them having a meltdown at playgroup!  I'm so used to people asking, "are your kids always so happy?" to which I will reply, "NO, they are not!" Although I'm very thankful for two kiddos with such sweet dispositions {most} of the time, they are still humans and they are sinful. They still have meltdowns {as today's episode proved to be true}, they whine, complain, yell, talk back, don't always listen or obey mommy and daddy, the list goes on.  As my child was having this meltdown, I looked at one of the mom's who has never seen either of my children cry {...