Steve and Jenny Valentine

It has been quite the effort to process all the thoughts, feelings and changes that have taken place over the past month for me and our family moving across the world. Many of you back in the states have asked how we are doing, how we are feeling. Our responses have usually been pretty brief as it is hard for us to understand the full scope of how we are doing, let alone be able to relate that to you. We are grateful for the concern and thankful that God has placed people in our lives who care so deeply for us, so much so that to ask about how we are doing, to pray for us and encourage us consistently. Thank you. This means a lot to us. It has not always been easy, in fact quite the opposite. It has not always been filled with joy, but many tears. The truth is...I feel weak. This would be the best way to describe how I feel. We laugh (sometimes) that it often takes both Steve and I to accomplish one task here that would have only taken one of us to do in the States. This wears us ...

Karis was excited to have her own camera to take pictures and video with ... she captured some fun moments from our travel across the ocean ... Enjoy! Before we left Orlando selfie Boarding our airplane in Orlando Uno in the Frankfurt airport on our layover Very tired mommy rocking Olivia in Germany during our layover My cake snack on the airplane going to Poland We "we are almost to Poland" selfie "Flat" grammy and grandpa on the plane ride The Walking life our new friends-part of the Nungesser family (Mr. Richard is silly!) Mrs. Brooke out for lunch About to eat in my first cafe selfie juice for kids in Poland In bagel B LT during our house hunting adventure (well, this is not our home) in lego creation my little sister That's all for now ... Hope you enjoyed adventures with Karis!

Well after a two month blogging hiatus, we decided to reappear in the bloggosphere! Instead of a wordy post, I thought I would show some highlights of the past couple months with pictures.  OH, and before I forget, we're moving to Poland...for real. One of the biggest highlights happened on July 1, when we reached 100% of our monthly financial goals (yay God!). So plane tickets were purchased and on August 9th we will leave here and arrive in Poland on August 10th. Only thing that is  needed on the financial partnership front is $6,000 in start up costs. Karis completed preschool Random opportunity to meet Kurt Warner, playing my cello with some of the CCC worship team for the Kurt Warner foundation event Another random, I won all these fun things through an online giveaway, in which I only really entered because I wanted to win the ESV Bible (I never win anything, so it made us laugh!) Isaac and Karis caught their first fish Traveled to No...

That's the question of the day...or past few weeks really!  Everyone seems to be asking,  " When are you leaving for Poland? "  If I am honest, I have to admit that sometimes I wince (on the inside of course) when people ask that question because it's a reminder to me of two things... 1. We haven't yet completed raising up monthly financial partners...and it's already been such a long journey and we still have 15% more to go, oy! AND 2. We are leaving Central Florida, the place we call home, and we are very sad about that. We are sad to be moving across the world, leaving those we love dearly who will remain on this side of the world. It's almost like a jab in the side every time someone asks that question as a painful reminder of our very present reality of leaving soon...whenever that may be! But, we also celebrate when we hear this question, because that means we are close! Closer to reaching the goal that will allow us to move into our next...

Being a person who is musically inclined, I often find myself being encouraged by music, by the lyrics and find my spirit lifted. In fact, all along our journey to move to Poland, I can pin point certain songs from different phases of the process and what each song meant to us in those moments…music is powerful! Steve also enjoys music and as a family we like to play certain songs (rather loudly) in the car and sing at the top of our lungs. In turn, our children (even little Olivia) will clap and sing to the songs. It has become a normal family tradition when we ride in the van. One of those songs lately that we will crank up is called Forever. We had been given the latest Passion CD from a sweet friend (along with some fun busy games for kiddos) as a gift before we left on our month long trip last month. We are grateful for this sweet friend and her thoughtfulness in giving us this gift before we left, because we found ourselves blessed (during our travels) by the music on the cd da...

It seems normal for us now. Plans changing. We have become accustomed to getting ready to do something and then it not going as we planned that it would. We are living in a reality of flexibility right now. This is our norm. Since we just returned home a few days ago from a month long trip to attend missionary training and visit family and a few partnering churches, we are well aware that at any moment a flight can be delayed, someone can get sick, people will change their minds and it is completely out of our control. Completely. So as we have learned to "swallow a bag of rubber bands" - and be as flexible as possible...we also notice it's not comfortable...to most people...ourselves included. It's never easy. It's not necessarily preferred. But the outcome is always worth it! We want to be made more into the image of Christ and we know that by laying aside our desire for things to go as we want (or even hope and pray that they will go) that we a...

I have been mulling over this topic for a couple weeks now. It first hit me when speaking with someone a few weeks back about the timeline of our going. The conversation went something like this, Them: so when do y'all leave? Me: We are hoping for July, depends on when we reach 100% support. Them: Wow, that's only like (counting on their fingers)...April, May, June, July...four months! And just like that, I felt as though the wind was being knocked out of my body, I thought, "there's not enough time"! You know, not enough time to spend with those I love dearly. And fast forward a couple weeks, I was sitting in our last Bible Study meeting for the Spring, while listening to women share their hearts of what the Lord had been doing in their lives, I thought again, "there's not enough time"...Here. Spending time with these women who push me to the Cross and encourage me to continue to dig into His word. Then there was the day I sat on the cou...