Thoughts on a New Year's Eve...

Well, it's officially January 1, 2009, and since I'm the only one still up...if you're not counting Roscoe the dog, and since I think you should, belay my last...and since Roscoe and I are the only ones still up, I felt like I should write something. Especially since I haven't written since, well, we lived in California...
So it's 1:53AM, the first morning of the new year. What in the world do I want to write about?
Maybe I want to write about two nights ago, 30 Dec, 2008, when a neighbor and I chased down a guy I saw peering in his back door, and how we confronted him, and how I thought there was a decent chance we both might wind up shot, and how I crashed in my living room with the gun by the couch, ready to go, should that guy know where I live...Or, maybe I should write about 31 Dec, 2008, when we went to a New Year's Eve church service for the first time in my life, and how we hung out with the pastor and a bunch of friends afterward, and how the girls were drawn to Daivney, and how they seemed magnetized by Natalie, and how in awe I am of her way with people...How in awe of her I've always been, in fact...Maybe I should write about my brother, David, the boy who's growing into a man, and how touched I am that he hasn't ever forgotten his big bro--even though I live half a nation away, haven't been home more than four times in the last three years, and he calls me--setting up the webcam himself--for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, since we couldn't make it back...Seeing him, talking with him and the family, means more to me than he will ever know....Which reminds me, maybe I should write of my folks, my Mom and Dad, who stayed home for the family and went out to travel and work for the family, respectively, so that I--being the firstborn--could know the value of both family and hard work, while being raised in a Christian home...Though I've tried to stray from my upbringing on more than one occasion, the examples they set, the years they put in and the lessons I received, have led me back to the Path more times than I could possibly count...Maybe I should talk about the Lord, the One who's brought us all the way from California to Maryland, even when I thought I'd be one of the almost 50% who didn't make it out of my training class, even when I thought there was no way Natalie and I could make things work financially on a small Navy paycheck, even when I thought there was no way a pregnancy and delivery could work out with one car and me an hour away for work, with a hospital farther away than that for delivery...Maybe, maybe, I should write about Daivney, the girl who can almost bring tears to my eyes just by the sound of her name and the image of her eyes, the baby of whom I barely feel adequate enough to call myself "Daddy," the Lord's gift of which I don't know if I'll ever feel worthy enough to have received...Maybe I should write of all these things. Maybe I should need another year, even more time than a year could ever provide, to write of all these things...