Happy 2009!

The New Year event is like a drug for sentimental people like me. It actually is a viable excuse to take a trip down memory lane, read through old journals and blogs, reflect, analyze, ponder the future. I love the new year just for that.

So, guess what I did...I read through my blog from this last year (haven't even touched my journal...it's a bit more of a tome) and was amazed at what this last year held. In juxtaposition to all the dim and dreary news (economic crisis, war in Iraq, violence in the Middle East, shady Illinois politics....)I found my life over the last year one to be happy about and not a year that I need to forget or drown myself in alcohol to make disappear.

I'm hoping that's a sign of a life well-lived.

So, here's what this last year held for me:

Travels:
as always, I'm amazed at the places I've been able to go and things I've been able to experience. This year found me on the beaches of Kona, Hawaii last January, hiking through the Red River Gorge in Kentucky over Spring Break, in Los Angeles for my friends' wedding in April, traveling through Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Dubai, U.A.E. over the summer, in Montana tromping around Glacier National Park in August, visiting New York for the first time in November, and meandering between Minnesota and Chicago, IL in between all that! Whew! What an amazing journey it's been physically. I should wear an odometer to keep track of all the miles!

Education:: of course the highlight was my graduation from Wheaton College grad school with my Masters Degree. I never fully considered further education after my graduation from undergrad and yet here I am. I'm now even considering the possibility of doing PhD studies in the future!

But...I also got my certificate in TESOL this summer which I hope will be a useful tool and beneficial training for the years ahead.

And I got a little "hands-on" education learning how to really wear a burka on the dusty streets when it's 110+ degrees out. I learned how to be a better cook this year. I learned what an art recruiting is. I learned how to ask better questions.

Friends and Family: life would be so boring with out the people in our lives to experience it with. I'm so thankful for the dear friends I've made from the Y friends that seem to come in and out of my life all over the world, the friends I've made a Wheaton, the local friends I make whose names are so difficult to pronounce correctly, and my family who watches me flit in and out of their lives like the wind, embracing me while I'm home and praying for me while I'm gone. There are those people who send emails and notes on facebook and yet we have not seen each other in a long time...friendships that stand despite distance. And of course my faithful team of supporters whose financial sacrifice and bended knees I couldn't live without. Thanks to all of you who have loved, embraced, prayed for, and laughed with me over this last year.

2009
And as always the New Year has us hoping for better no matter how great the previous year has been. Some things that I hoping for this year is that I want to be more open to deep relationships in my life...truly connecting with people, not holding back or shutting people out. Same for my relationship with God...I want a greater revelation of him this year, to go deeper with Him, to devour his word and ache to hear his voice.

I want to love the stranger, help the poor and speak hope into the lives of as many as I possibly can.

And I want to see God be God this year. I want to stand in awe at what He does and who He is.

Bring on 2009!