Matt's Meanderings 2015/16

Welcome to 2017. I hope your Christmas was spent reflecting on life, family and that Jesus is the reason for the Season. We celebrated at our new home in Bundaberg hosting my family on Christmas Day and Sonya’s on Boxing Day.

Due to some busy moments 12 months ago, we just never managed to get our annual letter written and sent out. So before I recap 2016, let me pick out the major happenings of 2015. It started with a couple of family outings – firstly to the Ipswich Rail Museum and then a Sunshine Coast holiday visiting Sonya’s parents, while also taking the kids to Aussie World and Maleny Dairies.

Fist day of school 2015

Zachary had his 5^th birthday on his very first day at school in Prep, and Alexandra was in grade 1, both at Sunnybank State School. Throughout the year we watched the 2 older kids enjoy school life, Zachary especially being excited to finally be at school, often being up, dressed and ready hours before everyone else! He loved prep and got great marks that reflected his love of learning and having to know everything, picking up reading quickly and easily.  He is a naturally good reader and speller, but struggles with his writing being neat because of fine motor movements.

Alexandra (turned 7 in July) continued with Girls Brigade in 2015, enjoying the weekly social and spiritual aspects. Throughout the year,

Tuesday night was something she looked forward to, as well as the occasional church parade. She makes friends easily (especially at school) and attended several grade 1 birthday parties throughout the year. One point that frustrates her parents though is her constant “go slow”. She’s slow to get dressed, to get packed for school or anything for that matter, and is usually the last person out the door. 

Samuel (turned 2 in Jan) and Anastasia (<1) were both at home with Sonya at the start of the year while she was still on maternity leave, but later in the year when she returned to work Anastasia joined Samuel in attending and enjoying family daycare twice a week with our daycare mum Maria. Sonya joined a gym which also allowed the younger ones to attend a crèche at the gym for an hour a couple of days a week. Samuel especially loved this and would always refer to it as “my crèche” whenever driving past the big red building. He also had a habit of dropping syllables off the start of words and talking in the third person. He has a lively personality, and talks constantly.

12/3/15

29/3/15

 We watched Anastasia grow into a confidant toddler throughout 2015, often trying her hardest to get around after her older siblings. By October, she was up and walking and very much mobile! She has a fairly quiet manner about her and also loves the social aspects of family daycare and crèche.

30/9/15

25/7/15

17/8/15

29/8/15

 

7/11/15

Sonya returned to part time work in July 2015, continuing to work for S&N Pathology in their lab at Greenslopes Hospital. She enjoyed her 9 days a fortnight and relished the opportunity to change scenery and be more than just mum for a while. In December, Sonya had 2 surgeries within 10 days of each other. Both left her with significant recovery time, so thanks again to the grandparents, our kids had a Summer Holiday while Mummy recovered and Daddy played nurse to her and Soxy the cat (who had a tooth infection and his own operation at the same time).
It was a busy time, so the annual letter did not get written…

Christmas Family Photo 2015

As for me in 2015, I continued my journey as a Student Minister in the Uniting Church. I entered field placement at Wellington Point UCA mid-year, but due to complicated reasons by the end of the year the college had made a recommendation to terminate my candidature.  My regional council offered an alternative short-term placement in the 2016 new year that came with regular professional supervision sessions to assist me in addressing some of the inadequacies that had been identified by my field supervisor and the college.

Outside of my ministry, I continued to work for Vision Radio, although I resigned as a full-time staff member at the end of August to do field. They offered me the occasional shift to “keep my hand in” which also allowed me to still earn some sort of income. I undertook extra study doing a Cert IV in Pastoral Care and I finally completed my bachelor of theology and in May got to wear the gown and mortarboard and walk across the stage to formally “graduate”.

On that note, we leave behind the year 2015 and launch into what 2016 looked like for the Gees family.

Firstly, lets jump to the biggest news and the reason why this letter is coming to you from Bundaberg. If you don’t have facebook and haven’t heard through the grapevine... in October, the Gees family pulled up stumps from their Drewvale home of 3 years and trekked back to Bundaberg! Sonya and I have bought our first house in the suburb of Kepnock and the kids are settling in to their new life.

This all came about when Sonya was told that there was a full-time position opening in the Bundaberg S&N Lab which would allow a work transfer for her. And although her original plans were not to go back to full time work until the kids were all in school, she felt strongly that this was an opportunity not to be passed over. So in late August she had an interview in Bundy, looked at some houses while she was there, and within 36hrs had had the interview, had a successful job offer, and signed a contract on a house, and we had moved in by 30 days later.

Throughout the year we have enjoyed a number of great family adventures. In January while Sonya recovered from her surgeries, I spent 2 ½ weeks in Bundaberg with all 4 kids. They loved hanging out at the beach, visiting the zoo, patting baby animals and playing with their cousins. 

We visited Caloundra in January for Nana (Sonya’s Mum)’s 60^th Birthday (which was the first time the kids had seen their mother in person in about 5 weeks), took in the sights of helicopters and planes at the Brisbane RACQ Careflight open day in February, went camping at Jondaryan woolshed over Easter, saw the Watoto Children’s Choir perform at Ipswich in April, cheered on Zachary at 2 soapbox derbies and visited the Mt Gravatt show (just to name a few).

Anzac Day 2016, Wynnum

Alexandra (8) completed grade 2 in 2016. Throughout the year we’ve had challenges keeping her focused on school, but it is something she loves. She gets good marks, is very social and loved her teacher and class at Sunnybank. Despite the change of schools and geography, she continues to thrive in schoolwork at Bundaberg East and was awarded a Principal’s award for outstanding work. Alexandra also had her 3^rd year in Girls Brigade. She has enjoyed the spiritual input GB offers but also the opportunity to build friendships with girls her own age.
Her company doesn’t do many extra-curricular activities but throughout the year she has enjoyed the normal routine of company nights and loved pyjama party movie nights, water play, Mother's and Father's nights and the occasional church parade. She participated in a combined Boys and Girls brigade Teddy Bears Picnic and marched at the Wynnum Anzac Day Parade. Tuesday night was always a highlight for her, just often a struggle to get her moving! There were tears as she left behind her GB friends at the end of third term due to the move.

First day of school 2016

Zachary celebrated his 6^th birthday on the first day of school for grade 1 (so he is nearly 7 now).  He joined Boys Brigade at the beginning of the school year. He had been itching to enjoy the same comradery and activity that he has seen his sister enjoy and found it with the 45^th Brisbane company. His personality of loving life, laughter and anything that involves a hands on activity lent well to Boys Brigade. He couldn’t wait every week to take part in the activities and learn more about what BB is all about. The company activities outside of regular Friday nights included church parades, battalion swimming carnival, a battalion and State soapbox derby (he was awarded first in his age group at the battalion derby and 3^rd overall at the state comp), teddy bear's picnic and Anzac Day parade at Wynnum. He was also quite sad at having to leave it all behind when we moved to Bundaberg, where there are no brigades at all.

At school, Zachary has also found his thirst for learning met. He loves everything about school and
has shown excellence especially in reading and maths but still does well in all his subjects. He wants to know everything, loves to help and is a very hands on learner.

Samuel just turned 4 on the 14^th and what a personality this kid has. He never stops talking (often loudly), he has a smile that disarms, a natural curiosity and loads of energy. Samuel has spent the majority of the year attending family day care 2 days a week (up until our move) and loves being with Maria and her extended family. He is also a natural story teller, even to the point of making up a pretend friend (“my friend Yoga”) which we think is to compete with the stories his older siblings have of school and brigade friends. Often Yoga pops up at the most unusual moments, complete with a backstory all sorted out in his active imagination. Its quite funny. He is however missing Brisbane and that social aspect, often asking when we can go back to our old house and to Maria. He will start Kindy this year and hopefully this will assist him in feeling more “at home” in Bundaberg.

Anastasia turned 2 on September 11^th and her personality is now shining through. She is charming, assertive, funny, a bit of a risk taker and boy does she has a temper! She loves to climb, enjoys playing with dolls and bears, likes singing and dancing to certain things and knows what triggers to pull on and how to get your attention when she feels like she is being ignored. She is relatively quiet (understanding a lot more than she possibly lets on) but very  expressive and knows how to get her message across, usually getting what she wants (the youngest child, lol).   She calls her siblings by name (Alla, Zackee, yamyool) and wants to be involved in nearly everything they do. She also spent the majority of the year with 2 days a week family day care and loved Maria and the children she played with each day. She too is enrolled to start daycare along with Samuel at kindy.

As mentioned earlier, Sonya spent the majority of December/January recovering from surgery. Outside of this, she continued to work for S&N Pathology in the Greenslopes Hospital Lab, working every Monday and Friday and every second weekend on a permanent late shift. She also continued in her role as “management” at home – coordinating everyone, keeping the house running and looking after two little people while their siblings were at school. She decided she needed a hobby mid year, and so she started up a fish tank, which very quickly grew to the point that we had 4 fish tank setups and a turtle tank as well.  These of course all had to be moved with us only a few months after starting up, but she decided that we would only be re-setting up 3 fish tanks in Bundaberg, along with the turtle tank, and Soxy her 12 year old cat, as we had also gained a small fish pond that came with the house.

Sonya took an opportunity in August to do some professional development attending a work conference in Sydney. She stayed in a fancy hotel for 2 nights, attended a conference and did absolutely no sightseeing! (typical introvert). Funnily enough though she did strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger on the plane ride home and discovered he had some friends in common with her. 

Her pet project since moving to Bundaberg has been getting her house set up (yes as she tells you…its HER house, lol). Coordinating Builders, electricians, getting quotes for this and that, making sure boxes are unpacked and things set up the way she wants, just to make the house into a home. She had some invaluable help not long after we moved up, with some great friends giving up their day (and birthday to boot) to help get the initial stages of the house set up, and unpacking done. So while I was driving a truck up and down the highway a couple of times…she had everything under control to set up ready for the kids to come to their new home. Once again the grandparents had helped as we split the kids, 2 each for a week, to allow us to finish packing, move and unpack. She loves being back at work in the Bundy lab (after 8 years in Brisbane), but admits the change of hours can be a bit challenging, as she has gone from part time to full time shifts, plus some on call.

I suppose that brings us to me. 2016 was a topsy turvy year for me in so many ways. I spent 4 great months at Broadwater Rd UCA but at the end of the time, the church decided that as much they affirmed my worship leading and preaching, they did not believe I was suitable for ministry and terminated my candidature. After over a decade of working towards this goal, my journey was over. So then what? As mentioned above, despite resigning as a full time staff member at Vision Radio in August last year, I remained as a casual. They picked up a big new contract and offered me a few shifts here and there until eventually I was on the roster 5 days a week between school hours. I loved my job, loved the friends and colleagues I had gained over the 8 years there; and was sad when it came time to say goodbye. But I haven’t cut ties completely and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, am able to still do some work remotely from my home office (in between my new role of being the house husband and primary carer for the kids). 

On a sadder note, my Grandma Gees passed away a week before Christmas (we celebrated her 90th birthday in July). Although it’s sad that she won’t be in my life any more, I know she was proud of all I had achieved and it was a privilege to be there with my mother and my uncle at the very end. A further privilege was given to me when I was asked to choose and read scripture at her funeral.

Outside of this I have managed to do a few other things this year. I attended the UCA QLD Synod, entered some photos into the Mt Gravatt Show (achieving a couple of placings), helped out again at the annual Relay for Life in Bundy and participated in Moggill UCA Day Camp as camp photographer. Alexandra and Zachary also spent the week at day camp for the first time ever and would love to do it all again.

So to wrap it all up, its been a rollercoaster ride the last 2 years and this is merely a glimpse behind the scenes. I try to share with friends and family throughout the year what we’ve been up to via social media so please look me up on facebook or Instagram and join in our journey.
Of course as we always say, if you’re ever passing through our neck of the woods, we would love to see you and catch up.

Whatever 2017 holds for any of us, I encourage you to always put your trust first in God and until the next time our paths cross in this journey called life… The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ (Numbers 6:24-26) 

Christmas family photo 2016