Journeying Into 2009

We finished off 2008 with a Sunday School class party at Zach and Anne Gembis's house. We had a fun time playing games, eating, and fellowshipping with our friends from church. Kate had an allergic reaction to something she ate, and her bottom lip was pretty swollen. She took some Benadryl and it went down though the next morning. On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Stauch's house, ate lunch, and the same thing happened…but this time it was the top lip and her fingers and it was a lot worse. So we spent the afternoon at the doctor's office. They don't know what caused it, and we can't seem to find the correlation between New Years Eve and Sunday (had completely different foods). So now we have steroids and two other meds to help Kate get better. Please pray that we and the doctor can figure out the cause…it is unsettling not to know the source of the reaction.

Closing the door on 2008, we want to remember many of the GOOD things God blessed us with this year.

· Kate got into Nursing School, started it, and has already passed 2 semesters. She really loves school and learning how to care for people.

· Andrew has been able to reach and impact many men's lives at the Holland Rescue Mission.

· We have loved becoming involved with our church family, Sunday School class, and small group.

· We celebrated our 2^nd year of marriage in July.

· We were able to take a vision trip to Bethesda Outreach Ministry in South Africa this past August. We loved learning more about this ministry and being able to serve the kids, houseparents, and missionaries.

· Dad Dodd's surgery, in June, went well. The doctors got all the cancer out, he lost 40+ pounds, and he got to spend a week here in Grandville with us as he recovered.

· Grandma Galloway was promoted to heaven in February after a battle with ALS. We miss you Grandma and can't wait till we see you again.

· We welcomed our first niece, Elizabeth, into the Schneider and celebrated the 1^st birthday of our first Dodd niece, Natalie.

As we journey into 2009, we are eagerly anticipating how God will use us at work, school, church, and the relationships we are able to have with the people around us. We are looking forward to Kate's graduation (12/12/09), the Eagles winning the Super Bowl J, the Biblical Counseling training Andrew will do in February, Kyle's graduation from high school, Kate graduating (we are just a tiny bit excited to graduate! Can you tell?), and whatever is next in the journey that we may not even know about yet. Happy 2009!