Looking Back . . . Looking Ahead

I'm a week late, but before it gets any later, I wanted to take this opportunity to do some looking back at 2006, as well as sharing some of my plans for 2007.

2006 was a great year for me. After 2005, which brought much change my way (which wasn't always very easy), 2006 was somewhat of a welcome "fresh start". It provided me with a chance to embrace where I am, what I'm doing, and to be thankful for the blessings in my life. Not that I didn't have the chance to do that before - but last year brought renewed perspective, and right now, I feel at peace about where I'm at in life. While flying home for Christmas, I was thinking about this "adventure" that I'm on right now - and how much I really love what I'm doing. Sure, most days are nothing extraordinary. In fact, most of them look remarkably the same. But when put together, they make something that is, at least in my mind, pretty extraordinary. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it - if all the sacrifices that I've had to make are really worth it. Moving away from family and friends, hours and hours of school a week, and WAY too much debt. A lot of sacrifices have been made, and while I sometimes feel like I'm missing out on the "adventure" of life by choosing to be in school for so long, I just remind myself that I'm in my "adventure" right now, and that I'm opening up the door to a thousand possibilities in my future.

For me, the highlight was absolutely Zambia. I don't really need to go into much of a description, since I've probably exhausted most of you with my "Zambia talk". Being there, I just felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be at that moment in time. I felt free, at peace, full of joy. And truthfully, that's how I've felt for most of this past year. It's a good feeling to be content with where you are in life. And I'm thankful that God has brought that peace to me.

So, 2007? What does it hold? Well, for starters, in just a couple months, I'll be half done Optometry school. Hard to believe. As for the spring/summer, I'll be heading back to Saskatchewan, for a while at least anyways. I get to be a bridesmaid in Tamara & Matthew's wedding on May 12. I'm excited to be a part of their wedding (and am so thankful that it's not my wedding yet!). Then mid-May (after the wedding), I'm hoping to board a plane to head back to Zambia for a couple weeks. I'd like to spend time visiting friends, working in the orphanages, and tagging along with "Ninja Mother Teresa" (aka Ruhtt Mbumwae) while she and Shepherd do their work in the community schools and churches. At the beginning of June, I'd like to fly into Tanzania, where I would work in a school/orphanage for a month (through some volunteer organization), and then participate in an Eye Camp in Tanzania for the first two weeks of July. After the Eye Camp, I'll either head home, or spend a week seeing some sights in Tanzania (Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park, Zanzibar). It's all still in the works, but hopefully, in the next couple weeks, I'll have some things figured out. At times, I've struggled with whether this is really what I should be doing this summer, but this is where my heart is, and I think that I would regret it for a long time if I were to not seize this opportunity. God's given me a passion and a love for the African people - and I want to go share my love with them. I've never been one to sit back and watch - I'd rather be in there, doing something, making a difference. I'm excited to be brave and set out on my own, with just the pack on my back, and to get out there, and experience more of life. But enough about this - more will come once I know more myself.

So, that's it. It was a good year, and I know that 2007 will be a good one as well. I'll leave you with my favourite picture of me from 2006. I think the smile on my face says it all about where I'm at in life right now.