Steve and Jenny Valentine

Olivia Noël, like most third borns (trust me I know, I speak from experience...not that I'm bitter or anything mom and dad, haha!) has gotten the shaft in regard to keeping up with her many milestones on the blog as I did so well with the other two. So allow me to play catch up from the past (nearly) 6 months worth of fun facts and (LOTS of) pictures of our little love bug, "vivie", as she is so affectionately known around here! This is a major gush post (you're welcome grandparents) of this cutie pie and has nothing to do with work purposes...enjoy! 6 Months Old -Sold and Moved out of the house we brought her home to -Took her first real road trip (nearly three months long!) -Began sitting up on her own This is a dress I wore as a baby 7 Months Old -waving Hi -"singing" when you sing -flashing adorable smiles to everyone 8 Months Old -reaching for things while on her belly -rolling around -l...

This has been a hard week for our family. We have endured sickness (4 times over), financial pressure, the ongoing process of raising support and keeping up with many hours of online missionary training.  As if that wasn't an exhausting list already, I just spent the last several hours in the emergency room with our youngest who fell down a flight of stairs. And about that... She is OK!  But we are tired. We are weary. We are emotionally drained. We are in need of good rest (as that has not been happening with several sickies here, myself included!) But I can't go on without saying that  we are thankful that the Lord has  sustained us through this hard week.  We aren't promised a life here on Earth without trouble, fear, doubt, persecution, pain, weariness or strife. But we have a Strong Tower that we can run in to in order to endure the storms of life. This verse started going through my head this evening, along with one other as I walked out of th...

2015 has arrived. This is the year we have talked about for a while now, the year we have been telling people of when we will move to Poland (Lord willing!)  It is exciting, unknown and we are hopeful for what the Lord has in store. This first week of 2015 has been exciting...I got another year older (yay 31, my "golden" year!), we reached our 50% goal of financial support (now on to 100%!), we got passport pictures for the kids and Steve (to renew his), bought our carry on luggage and Steve is officially done with his role of Director of Mobilization with Converge. And we're only a week into 2015! In the midst of it all, I find myself seeing glimmers of hope in what could be deemed a busy time, I wanna soak it all in and take time to reflect. Just to highlight a few things... *We reached 50% financial support-this was all the work of the Lord, absolutely no way we could have done this in our own strength. I mean we began the month of December at 33%...end...

All along this journey of raising support, we have thought a lot about leaving. Leaving our family. Leaving our friends. Leaving our church. Leaving where we have called home for the past (almost) 6 years. Just leaving. It’s hard to even begin to imagine what life will be like without all of the above. In all of this time processing our own thoughts and feelings, a mix of sadness, excitement and sorrow; I am very aware of those we leave behind. I can’t articulate what “they” (those who stay here while we leave) are thinking and feeling because, well, I am not them. But what I do know, is for those who stay, they deal with a sense of loss, sadness, excitement and sorrow as well. In their own way. Different than how we feel it, but none the less, they feel it. As we have talked about this, we want to be sensitive to those around us that are walking alongside us, helping us move toward Poland, a move that will take us far away from them. We want to stay connected....

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’re going on a bear hunt.  We’re going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We’re not scared!”   As Isaac and I sat on the couch together chanting these words from one of his favorite books, I was struck with a great truth that was found in this classic children’s story. As the story goes the family encounters obstacle after obstacle on their bear hunting journey. Each time they come to a new obstacle they chant: “we can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. We’ve got to go through it!”   As we read these words together Isaac likes to scream the last line and point forward with his hand as though he were the captain of a ship. Every time he does I pray that God will make this the disposition of his heart. As we journey in this life of faith that he would with bold confidence set his face toward the trials ahead and be willing to go through them. That as he grows as a man that he would lead his future family in this way, trusting that as...

Who ever said “stop and take time to smell the roses” has never been shoved in a minivan with almost all their belongings, 3 small children and told to drive over 1,500 miles through 16 different states in an effort to raise financial support for the ministry you feel called to do. Who even cares about stinkin “roses” when you have 400 miles left in your drive but cannot manage to be on the road for more than 30 minutes before someone has to use the bathroom yet again? This has been my heart condition of late. A heart that is more concerned with arriving at our final destination than the journey we are on. But what if the saying was “ stop and take time to become more like Jesus ” or even “ stop and take time to deeply treasure Jesu s”. Oh how this changes the long days in the car on this sanctification journey called a family road trip. Lord forgive me when I have been more concerned with “getting there” then who we are when we arrive. -Steve More  about our move to...