Ryan Graduates!

Ryan graduated two weeks ago with his Masters of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was a wonderful weekend and a great opportunity to celebrate my sweet husband.

Congratulations, Ryan! You are an amazing husband, and I love you so much! I'm so very proud of you.

Sunday School Christmas Party 2008

Every year, our Sunday school class has a Christmas party at Dr. Wellum's house (our Sunday school teacher). It is a time of food, fellowship and fun.

We do a White Elephant gift exchange that always provides lots of laughter. Some of this year's favorites: an Obama "Yes, we can" poster, a Jonas Brothers poster, a pedometer, a Bruce Lee video, Candy Land and the gift that has been passed around for the last couple of years--Benny Hinn's He Touched Me book. Brandon, Ryan's brother bought that for him for Christmas one year at a gas station, so a couple of years ago, Ryan decided it would be a perfect addition. Indeed, it has become tradition that whoever the lucky recipient is of that book has to sign it and bring it back the following year.

It was a good reminder of how very blessed we are with such great friends.

Halloween in Nashville

Ryan and I spent Halloween weekend in Nashville and were able to see the kids all dressed up in their costumes. Joshua was a white ninja, Aby was Cinderella, Isabel was a honeybee and Wally was a pumpkin (actually an infant costume that just happened to fit). They were a pretty cute bunch, and as you can imagine, getting a picture of them all together was quite a chore. Aren't they adorable!?

Soccer

Here are a couple of soccer pictures. The first one is of Ryan and his friend, Dan, coaching their Upwards soccer team. Upwards soccer is a ministry that our church does to reach out to the community. There are a tremendous number of people who participate in this program that are not associated with the church.

The second picture is of our nephew, Joshua, playing on his first soccer team. He's already following in his daddy's and uncle's footsteps!

Reunion Bobo Tourney

Catching up on blogging. A bit of everything. Here are a couple pictures from the Bobo (card game) tournament that we had with some of the guys from our trip to Niger.

We're Moving to Washington D.C.!

That's right! We will be moving to Washington D.C. on January 1. Ryan got accepted to an internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Mark Dever’s church) for the spring and will be one of six men in this pastoral internship program. He will be able to get an up-close look at what a healthy, biblical church looks like and will gain a better understanding of what it will mean to one day shepherd his own flock according to Scripture. For a more detailed description of the internship program, click here.

God has so clearly been orchestrating the details of all of it. Ryan applied for the internship a few weeks ago on a Wednesday (after being told it was virtually impossible for him to get in so last minute) and got accepted on that Friday. I talked to my current boss on the following Monday and had a new job lined up in D.C. by Wednesday—praise the Lord! I sent in my applications for optometry licensing in D.C. and Virginia, so now we’re just praying that God would provide someone to rent our house in Louisville while we’re gone. The church provides housing and a monthly stipend, so it should be a great opportunity to pay off student loans. :) We’ll be living right by the church, so about 5 or 6 blocks from the Capitol. We’re really excited about it.

Lord willing, we'll return to Louisville in June, and Ryan will start his PhD in Systematic Theology in the fall. Praise the Lord that He is sovereign and good to his children!

Sweet Surprise

As many of you might already know, Ryan is extremely thoughtful. He has done so many unselfish things throughout our marriage, and this was just one more example of that.

A week ago, my husband surprised me with tickets to the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars in Nashville. What makes this act so special is that I had no clue this tour even existed. Ryan heard about it, knew how much I like gymnastics and decided to buy me tickets.

Anyway, I really appreciated Ryan's thoughtfulness in planning this special date for me. My pictures didn't turn out very well, but here are a couple pictures from the night.

Shawn Johnson prepares to tumble

Nastia Liukin on bars

Some of the girls

Thank you, Ryan. I love you!

A Timely Sermon

For all who want to know how to think rightly about life and children, adoption and abortion--about what's at stake in this election--in chapel last week, Russell Moore delivered a sermon you need to hear and consider.

But Jim Hamilton introduces it better than I could. See this.

Woo Hoo!

I just wanted to let all of you know who had been praying about this that Ryan was accepted into the Doctor of Philosophy program here at Southern. He'll be studying Systematic Theology under Dr. Stephen Wellum. Yea!

We're so excited that Ryan will be able to continue his studies here in Louisville. Thank you so much for your prayers!

A Bishop First

Wally normally gets groomed every so often, but it has always been done by someone else. Today, however, I decided to give Wally a haircut. I must say that we have the best dog in the world! It took forever to cut his hair, and I put Wally in some pretty uncomfortable positions, but he was so patient with me. Our little Bear was so well behaved! I don’t plan to attempt this again anytime in the near future, but it’s nice to know that I can do it if needed.

The pictures certainly don’t do it justice, but it really does make a big difference in how he looks.

Wooly Wally Before


Clean-cut Wally After

Washington D.C., Part Two

On Saturday morning, Jessica and I started off at the Holocaust Museum. It broke my heart to walk through there and learn more about what the Jews had to endure under Hitler. It was definitely a blessing to be reminded of the freedom that God has given us here in America.

A very nice man helped us to figure out how the Metro (subway system) worked, so we headed over to the Eastern Market for a little bit. It’s an outdoor market filled with little stands of artwork, clothes, food, etc. They also have a portion with lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. We really enjoyed walking through there, sampling the food and checking out some of the stands. After we had lunch, we met up with Ryan and Eric for some ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s.

When the boys went back to their conference, we went to the Archives. Our time there was pretty short as they were about to close. I did manage to get in trouble for my camera flash going off. It wasn’t a good situation, but I promise it was an accident.

Jessica and I then decided to go to the Botanic Garden. We found a nice table to relax at while we waited for the boys. While we were sitting there, the cutest little bird hopped up to us. He didn’t seem to be afraid of us and would get within a foot or so of us on the table. Anyway, he was the roundest, fattest little bird I have ever seen. He was adorable! He was pretty quick, so one of these pictures is pretty blurry.













We spent Sunday morning under wonderful teaching at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. After church, the boys had lunch with some of the elders, so Jessica and I went back to the Eastern Market for some lunch. There was a fun little group singing.

We then met the boys for their break and all headed to the White House. We weren’t able to go inside, but we took a couple pictures in front of it.

Later that night, Jessica and I went to the Lincoln Memorial, which was really neat. I don’t know why, but I was surprised at how big the monument was. One of our tour trolleys claimed that one side of Lincoln’s face looks stern (see photo below and to the right), which supposedly represents his no slavery view on the war, but the other side (see photo below and to the left) looks soft, which supposedly represents his tenderness in wanting to welcome the southern states back into the Union.














We ended our night with Chipotle (Jessica’s first time), which we agreed was delicious and topped that off with some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (for the second time that weekend!).

We loaded back into the car and drove home the next day. Ryan and Eric definitely didn’t get to see much of the city, but they benefited tremendously from the knowledge and wisdom they gained from the 9Marks Weekender. Jessica and I really enjoyed our sightseeing, of course, but there was still so much we didn’t get to see. It was definitely a great weekend, and we were all so thankful for our time there.

Washington D.C., Part One

Ryan and his friend, Eric, recently went to a 9Marks Weekender Conference in Washington D.C. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a conference that occurs three times a year and is geared at training pastors and other church leaders. Men come from around the world to sit under the teaching of Mark Dever and the other men at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, a church committed to living and ministering biblically.

Anyway, as a last minute thing, Jessica, Eric's wife, and I were able to accompany our husbands on this trip. We knew the boys would be in meetings almost all day every day but figured this would be a great opportunity to hang out in D.C. We left late on Wednesday, drove through the night and made it to D.C. the next morning.

We were all pretty exhausted but were eager to make the most of our time before the boys had to check in for their conference. We managed to visit the Library of Congress, which was absolutely beautiful and was the site of some of the filming for National Treasure II.

We also got passes to go sit in on some of the Senate and House of Representatives meetings, however, we only had time to see the Senate. We just missed seeing and hearing Hillary Clinton speak, and apparently most of the Senate had adjourned for lunch right before we walked in. We then headed to our hotel so the boys could get showered and changed for their meetings that night. Jessica and I decided to stay at the hotel because Ryan and Eric wouldn't be done until after midnight. Needless to say, we all slept really well that night.














On Friday morning, Jessica and I bought trolley passes and set out to see the city. Our first stop was the National Zoo. We were mainly interested in seeing the giant pandas because we had heard that they had a panda cub. We learned later that this panda cub was actually born in July 2005, so he wasn't quite as small as we had imagined, but he was still really cute. His name is Tai Shan. We also got to see his parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. A friend of mine said she thought there are only 3 zoos in the U.S. that even have pandas. The zoo was absolutely beautiful, and it would have been fun to spend the whole day there, but there was still lots to see.

We then headed to the National Cathedral, which was breathtaking. The details of the Cathedral, both inside and out, were so intricate. Our next stop was Georgetown, where we happened to stumble upon a la Madeleine, which is one of my favorite Texas restaurants. (I never realized how much I love that place until we were away from it.) This was Jessica's first time to eat there, and she was equally excited about the experience.

Jessica and I met Ryan and Eric for a few minutes, then we went to the World War II Memorial. It was beautiful and touching. One of my grandfathers served at Pearl Harbor, so it was neat to see the quote from FDR about December 7, 1941 being a date which will live in infamy engraved on one of the walls.

Next we saw the Korean War and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials. Our trolley dropped us off for the day at Union Station, where we bought some dinner and took it to the garden at the National Gallery of Art, where there was a free jazz concert. We loved watching all the people just hanging out with their blankets and picnic baskets. It was very relaxing and was a great environment in which to spend a couple of hours.

Family Time

I finally downloaded the pictures on my camera to my computer and realized I still hadn't written about our trip to Nashville at the beginning of August. It was a short and very last minute trip, but we wanted to try and see Brandon, Jill, Joshua, Aby and Isabel before the chaos of school began again. It was only our second time to see Isabel since she was born in February, so most of the few pictures I took were of her.
Brandon reading to Joshua and Aby

Isabel's face after tasting a lemon

I love her expression here!


For some reason, Isabel was terrified of Ryan. We think it was because of his facial hair. It didn't matter who was holding her, if she saw Ryan, Isabel started bawling. It was so funny and yet so sad at the same time.

Though it was a short trip, we made it to a nearby Black Eyed Pea. That probably means nothing to most of you because it's apparently a regional restaurant, and there aren't any that we know of in this part of the country. Their website only shows locations in Texas and Colorado, so I'm not sure what the deal is with one in Tennessee. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Ryan and I met at the Black Eyed Pea in Arlington more than ten years ago. Ryan and Brandon had been working there for awhile, and I started the spring of my senior year in high school. Praise the Lord for causing our paths to cross! It was great to reminesce over some great southern food!

We had a great time together and feel so blessed to live this close to Brandon and Jill. Thanks, guys, for opening up your home and changing your plans on such short notice! We love you!!

Ike

We watched the news as we worried about the damage that Hurricane Ike would do to Houston (our old home). I had no clue that our current home in Louisville, Kentucky would sustain so much damage. It absolutely baffles me that Ike was so big and powerful that its devastating effects continued so far north. We didn't have any rain, but winds in Louisville were measured at 75 miles per hour! The storm came right as we were getting out of church on Sunday, September 14, and we watched tree branches and debris flying by while eating lunch. I seriously felt like I was watching a scene from The Wizard of Oz, and I expected Toto to go flying by at any moment.

More than 500,000 Kentuckians were without power at one point, and unfortunately, many still are. Many schools including Ryan's seminary and the local public school systems shut down school for the entire week due to lack of electricity. Major branches and entire trees were down everywhere. Our power flickered, but we never lost it, which was a huge blessing, as many of our friends were without power for several days.

I am amazed at God's power and sit here humbled that He has chosen to show grace and mercy on me. We are all sinners who deserve nothing but destruction and an eternity in hell. However, the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ allows us to stand before God washed white as snow. Praise the Lord for His amazing grace!

Here are just a few pictures of the devastation in Louisville: