Bev and I, as we were drifting off to sleep around 11 last night (9 months of sleep deprivation, that’s about as late as we could make it) were talking about how after a bumpy 2006 that 2007 might be a better year.

Off to a rocking start. At the stroke of midnight, with the noise of the fireworks echoing outside, our 2 year old started to cry. I go in, thinking it might just be the noise, but no… she puked over her bed. The next 45 minutes are cleaning her up and changing her bed then getting her back down to sleep.

Our 9 month old seems to have regressed back to a 2 hour feeding schedule overnight this past week so there’s that regular interruption. Also at 5am the heat kicks in and the rattling pipes wake our daughter and again I go in. Not 10 minutes later she pukes again. This time I was prepared with bucket.

I decide that I will stay with her the rest of the morning and get maybe 15 minutes sleep, while she wakes at 6:30 telling lots of stories. Thankfully around 7 she’s back to sleep until just after 8. This time period is when I finally get my 15 minutes of sleep.

So… 2007 can only get better in my opinion. Heck, whenever we start sleeping more than 2 hours straight has the potential to make it the greatest year ever from where we stand right now.

2006 was indeed a bumpy year. There was lots going on that I did not blog about, and I’ll only touch on a couple of things here. Certainly things like the birth of our son will make it more memorable as time passes. But there are also the events of loss that will be remembered. The loss of both Ruby and Zorro only months apart and the death of my grandfather in between were significant this year.

2006 will also be remembered because I had some great preaching opportunities this summer in United, Baptist and Presbyterian churches, it was a really fun summer in that regard, and we also were able to spend time with Bev’s family, which we hadn’t really had opportunity in a long time.

So what’s next? Well, I’ve been holding off on this news as I wasn’t sure if it would happen due to some glitches. But right now it looks like a go. I will be a sort of student supply for the Sambro-Jollimore pastoral charge for the next while. Due to the above mentioned glitches I am still unsure of the details, other than right now I am leading worship and providing pastoral care in some sort of part-time assignment while we wait for the regular minister to return. There is no timeline for her return at this point, so I have been asked to take a turn at filling in the gap.

I also have some interviews with the church coming up. If all goes well I should see an internship in the fall. Finally! It’s been a long journey, but I trust that it will all work out in the end.

2006 was a loooong year, but in that long year we’ve made some discoveries. If we continue to build on what we’ve found, I think that this year, and the ones to come, will be very fruitful and blessed. Thanks be to God!

Oh, on a side note. It may be noticed that I’ve turned off comments to all but registered users. I had to. The 3000 spam comments I’ve deleted in the last month and a half were too much. If you want to comment, feel free to register, I may try turning it on again sometime later this month.