This is a slightly edited version of the ‘Year in Review’ email I sent out today:

Dear Friends,

2009 is just about up, as I stop to reflect on what the year has been I thought I’d deviate from the usual blog post and use the rapidly aging art of email, while indulging the use of the universally accepted pdf.

2009 has seen Geoff and I through our second year of marriage – which despite popular opinion is not the most difficult. Marriage is excellent, I would recommend it to most. It requires much of self, but is rewarding and fun!

As we wind up the year we’ve managed to sneak in some truly interesting last minute changes. Late in the year Geoff decided that a career in IT was not so fulfilling and investigated what it would take to become a teacher. He discovered an initiative called Teach For Australia, (Which is in it’s pilot year), applied, got through their rigorous interview process and is now in the middle of a 6 week intensive before he is placed in a Secondary School (Mill Park Secondary) to teach IT and hopefully eventually Maths at the start of 2010 school year. This means that we’ve had to make the move from the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne to the North.

The week before Christmas we moved to suburb called ____, the area is perhaps not as pretty as out East but the house we are in is a winner. We are renting off Geoff’s parents which makes life much easier (and means I can put pictures on the wall!) it also has the added bonus of air-con and a dishwasher. Being about an hour from where we were means that we will have to find a new church community as Ranges Vineyard in Olinda is sadly too far. We have some contacts out this way but have yet to investigate!

2009 has seen me graduate from my Communication Design degree. (Graduate Exhibition photo to the left). It was a ripper last year at uni, I really enjoyed myself and made a few new lovely friends. I am now in the process of finding a ‘real’ job while temporarily freelancing.

Other enjoyable things in 2009 have been:

-    My sister Hannah getting engaged to Daniel Nixon
-    Starting a bookclub (Penguin Classics!)
-    Further involvement in Soul Survivor Melbourne
-    ‘Friends for Dinner’ (The appalling name we’ve given to a small group of us who meet up fortnightly to chat about God and life over dinner and with wine of course)
-    Some great holidays and times with friends
-    Being a bridesmaid for my friend Samantha
-    Discovering Terry Pratchett novels (My life is complete)

As I look back to the first blog post I wrote in January about ‘Idealutions and Resolutions’ it seems like I’ve made very reasonable progress with most of what I’d intended. I am surprised. The year, although rife with highlights has felt somewhat slow, there has been a rather large murky endpoint to it all which has overshadowed things at times despite being simultaneously exciting and intriguing.

We would appreciate prayer as we launch into so many new things. As we find and start new jobs, settle in to a totally different suburb, make new
friends and find a new community.

Farewell 2009, we hope yours was as good, we would love to hear from you.

Love Bec & Geoff