Steve and Jenny Valentine

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...

I'm sitting on our balcony enjoying the 70 degree weather this evening...how amazing is that and so different from Texas! I'm watching my husband study for his first Greek exam and pondering how GREAT our GOD is! It's been a long time since I've lived in a place where when the sun begins to set, the tempurature starts to cool off as well! That was one thing I missed about the north when I first moved to Texas so many years ago, so it's nice to be in a place that cools off as the sun sets for the day. Steve has enjoyed this first week of Greek...today it started getting challenging, but he has been studying like crazy for his first exam tomorrow. Everyday he's had a quiz at the beginning of class and everyday, except today, he's gotten 100...today he got a 98! I'm so proud of him. It's so exciting to see him study God's word in it's original language and to see how excited he gets when he learns something new and wants to teach me. ...

Steve had a wonderful day of class yesterday and I had an interview! We both got home around the same time, talking away about our adventures to school and interviewing. It was so good to see the smile on Steve's face after his first day and know that he is so pumped about the upcoming school year. He has already been studying like crazy...I need to make some friends to find stuff to do while he's studying ;) He also called the company back where he interviewed last week and told them he wants to accept the full time position they offered (that was 25 hours per week). The lady is supposed to call him back tomorrow to confirm what school they can place him at and if the full time schedule will work! My interview was with Converge Worldwide...it was slightly unexpected but exciting too! I had called them a couple weeks ago asking if they had any openings, and at that time, they didn't but asked me to send my resume anyway in case something came up. I did so, not reall...

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...

These are just a couple of the many ways we've really seen God providing for us and encouraging us as we prepare to leave for Oranldo next week: *We were at our local health food store purchasing some groceries and we began talking with the cashiers-it's a small store, so it's the type of place where they recognize you when you come in and you can talk to them because they're not rushing you through the line. We mentioned that we were moving soon and she started asking all the details and then she asked the question I've become so accustomed to in the past few months, "Where will you work when you get there?" I told her I wasn't sure yet and that we knew God would open a door. Her response really surprised me, she said, "you know, you will find something!" That may seem like a pretty simple response, But I have become so used to hearing people say something like, "what a horrible time to move", "this economy is horrible...