Looking back, looking ahead
2024 was a weird and wonderful year. As I look back on the year just gone, the list of significant events is long! We’ve travelled to six other countries between us, Andrew & I reached big milestones in our careers, and Jonny turned one. It’s been a great year in some ways and incredibly challenging in others. But God has been faithful through it all and for that, we are incredibly grateful.
Andrew is close to finishing his doctoral programme at the University of Oxford studying artificial intelligence. He would be happy to tell you more about it, I’m sure. He’s just returned from Vancouver where he was selected to present some of his research at NeurIPS, one of the largest conferences in his field. Another paper he worked on was named the best paper in its category. I don’t know as much about the inner workings of his field, but I do know that he has an impressive research record and that we should all be very proud of him. He also went to Vienna and Heidelberg on research trips, so he’s had a busy year of travel. Beyond work though, Andrew has continued serving at our church by helping to lead a youth Bible study on a Friday night, where he gets to answer all their big questions. He also continues to sing in worship services on Sundays, with many at church referring to him as ‘the man with the lovely voice’ - some things never change!
Jonny started the year unable to walk but now it’s hard to catch him! To say he’s an active toddler would be an understatement. His first word was ‘uh oh’ - a word that continues to be used frequently - which was shortly followed by ‘daddy’ (much to Andrew’s delight) and ‘banana’ with a silent ba- came soon after that. We celebrated his first birthday by going to Wales with my side of the family, and he thoroughly enjoyed all the presents and attention. I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising. Jonny travelled further than just Wales though. We thoroughly enjoyed taking him to Amsterdam with Andrew’s parents in April and attending his Uncle Christopher’s wedding in the US in October. Well, we enjoyed being there; I think we might still be scarred from the plane travel! There will be some transition for Jonny in the new year as he stops going to nursery and stays at home with me for a while. This was a decision we didn’t expect to make but we are sure it will be good for all of us. We are excited for all the ways Jonny will grow in the next year, and assume he’ll be just as cute for next year’s Christmas card!
I had quite a eventful year too. My contract ended at Lambeth Palace at the end of February, and I had a few months of unemployment before starting back at Christ Church Abingdon as Worship Pastor. But that wasn’t my biggest professional move of 2024. As many of you know, I love to write. And, excitingly, I signed with a literary agent and hope to begin writing more professionally in the new year. In the meantime, I’m writing a blog on Substack and you can follow me there. Other highlights from my year include going to see Taylor Swift twice (once in Paris and once in Liverpool), travelling to Paris (again!) with Andrew to watch a friend compete in the Olympics, and moving to our current house. As mentioned above, I’ll be taking care of Jonny at home starting in January and am looking forward to more Mummy-Jonny time.
2025 will bring new things, some we know about now but so many more that will come as surprises. Once again, we are excited for all that God has for us in the year ahead.
