Christmas Letter 2008

December 20, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

I pray that you have had a blessed 2008 & are looking forward to 2009. Our family has had many changes over the past year & God has been with us through all of them. 
In January we celebrated my 23rd birthday. As part of my present, we adopted 2 cats named Peanut & Lucy. They are sweet & have been a fun addition to our family. We also started our foster parenting classes. 
April & May were exciting months for us. We were accepted as foster parents & received our first placement, 2 little boys. They were with us from May until August. We also found out in April that we were expecting our first child! We were thrilled! We had been trying for two & a half years & had somewhat come to the conclusion that we were not going to have biological children. I really feel like once I told God that I would do things His way instead of just believing it had to be my way in my time, He chose to bless us with this pregnancy.
We also got to meet our newest nephew in May. Kayden was born in May & he has been a blessing. We now have 4 nephews & one niece. What a blessing it is to be near them & to see them all grow up!
In August Derrick & I went to Indiana for our annual “visiting the Daulton's & going to GenCon” trip. It was good to spend 4 days just having fun with friends. Derrick & I enjoyed the trip & were able to spend some time catching up on the drive there & back. We also started back up the quizzing program at our church. Our church is now running both a children's & teens' quizzing program. It has been a joy to watch the children & teens learning God's word. We were also able to experience 2 of our teen quizzers accepting Christ as their Savior. We are so proud of them & are hopeful that they are able to share Christ with their friends. 
In September we celebrated Derrick's 27th birthday. We also had an ultrasound to find out if our baby was going to be a boy or a girl. We found out that we were going to be blessed with a little boy. My due date was January 6th, 2009, but we soon found out that we would not be waiting that long to meet our little guy.
Dylan Jay Sindt was born by c-section on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 6:05 pm due to my preeclampsia. He was born at 26 weeks, 6 days. He weighed 2 lbs., 3 oz. & was 14.5 inches long. He has been growing bigger ever since. He is a blessing & a miracle. God has truly been with us & with Dylan. Besides a few small setbacks, Dylan has done great & has been progressing the way he should be. I am feeling better, although we are still fighting with my blood pressure. 
In November we received word that the college I graduated from was closing. It was a shock to me & was very sad. Although Vennard is now closed, God will continue to use those who graduated from the college. There are Vennard alumni all over the world & God is blessing the work that they are doing.
Derrick & I have so much to be thankful for this Christmas. I was sick enough that if I hadn't gotten care when I did, Dylan & I could have not been here this Christmas. God has truly taken care of us & has been with us through all the recovery that has gone on. Dylan is still in the hospital, but we are hoping that he will be coming home soon. 
How faithful God is – last year we asked to be blessed in 2008 & we truly have been. God has given us the child that we prayed for & cried for for the last few years. He has given us wonderful family & friends to support us. He has blessed us financially – while things have sometimes been tight, we have never been in need of anything. How thankful we are! 
As I finish this letter, I want to take time to thank all of you who have thought of us throughout this year. We have been blessed beyond measure & the prayers & support we have received have been worth their weight in gold. Please know that your love does not go unnoticed.
We are looking forward to 2009. We hope that we continue to grow closer to God throughout the next year & that we are able to see God's hand at work. God has blessed us in many ways this year. We can only guess what He has in store for us next year! Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Love,

Renee, Derrick & Dylan