Our Christmas Letter

I typed up a Christmas letter to send to relatives far away. I didn't send it to most of our friends and family who live close because I thought why would they want to read about what they already know? Then, Andrea gave me her Christmas card and the letter she'd typed of their 2008 adventures and I realized that even though I'd lived right beside her 'moments' I truly enjoyed reading it--it brought tears to my eyes to re-read the journey of their blessings through the year. So, for those of you who didn't get our letter, and who care...here it is.
Enjoy & thanks for living beside our moments as we've journeyed through them!

Hello Dear Friends and Family~

Well, I’m not really the Christmas newsletter type of gal, but we’ve had so many growths & changes to our lives this year, that I felt like I had to update everyone…God has been so good to us & our lives are expanding in leaps and bounds!

January dawned the beginning of a very long 4 months of student teaching for me. These were growing months for our marriage as we learned to live off of solely Mike’s income, humbly accept help from family, and truly put our trust in God with not only our finances but all aspects of life.

Then, three days before Mike’s 27^th birthday in April, when sanity was just beginning to set back in, I found out that I was expecting our first baby! I tried to hold in the news until his birthday, but that lasted all of 30 seconds!! Very exciting for us & the beginning of a brand new journey (& a lot of baby sickness that only 2% milk & Nesquik could cure)!

In May, I finished my Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education with a certification in K-6 Special Education. I was expecting a job with my home school at Schuyler, but some administrative changes & God’s hand prevented that from happening. After lots of prayer & tears, I interviewed at a neighboring district (Scotland County in Memphis, MO) & accepted a K-3 Special Education position. While I was interviewing, I learned that the school was also hiring a new Technology Coordinator. The superintendent asked me to have Mike call for an interview and very quickly it became clear to us that God had a plan for us all along. Mike accepted a job with the same school district & we began our new jobs in August. Now, we ride to work together everyday & get to see each other throughout the day! How blessed we are! We were also guided to a wonderful daycare provider—a woman who used to work with my mom at Headstart—& our little one will be a mere 3 blocks away when I start back to work.

When we found out we were going to be working in Memphis, the decision to move home was easy. We’ve wanted to be in Lancaster since we got married 3 years ago, and 4 moves & rentals later we were coming back! We began looking for houses to buy & started the looooong process of paperwork to get our very first homebuyer’s loan. We were blessed with a wonderful loan agent who held my hand every step of the way & we now own a sweet little house on what is often called the “old high school road” in Lancaster (many of you will know the house as the old Lena Hall house). We moved in the week after school started for us in August on a hot summer Saturday (thanks to a lot of family). The house has all of its beautiful original woodwork & we are loving being homeowners!

Fall seemed to go quickly for us as we worked to get settled in & get the nursery & house just right. On December 9^th God brought us our biggest blessing of the year yet—our sweet daughter, Natalee Cynthia. We are thankful for not only the company of my mom and sister, Andrea, in the delivery room, but also for God’s apparent presence. After a couple of setbacks that seemed bigger at the time than they do now, we welcomed Miss Natalee to our world at 3:24 a.m. She weighed in at 8 lbs., 12 ½ oz. and was 20 ½ in. in length. A mere 8 days later she was already up to 9 lbs., 9 oz. and she continues to grow and thrive. We love her more everyday and thank God for our Christmas Gift (Natalee means gift at Christmas).

Here’s hoping that you all have been blessed as we have this year. We’d love to hear from all of you, so keep in touch!

Christ’s Blessings to You All~
Mike, Jenn & Natalee Cynthia