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:

PhD Interview

For those of you who may not know, Ryan will be graduating in December with a Master of Divinity and is applying to do a PhD in Systematic Theology here at Southern.

Tomorrow will be the last step of Ryan's PhD application process--the interview and field essay. It will be such a relief for Ryan to have all of it behind him, though I'm sure the waiting to hear back part won't be too fun.

Anyway, please keep him in your prayers tomorrow. We'll keep you posted and let you know when we hear something.

Entertained but Exhausted

Ryan and I have absolutely loved watching the Olympics over the last week. Brandon and Jill ask us on occasion if we ever dislike living in the Eastern time zone. Our answer has always been no, but I have discovered that this is the one time where it stinks not to be on Central time (or later).

My favorite Olympic event is by far gymnastics, but they always air this event so late at night. I stayed up to watch the Women's All Around the other night (Go USA!), and that meant that I didn't go to bed until 1:30 a.m.! I mean, how ridiculous is that!? They always do the best stuff at the very end. It wouldn't be a big deal to stay up late a couple of nights to watch it, but this happens every night. I'll be sad when the gymnastics events are over, but at least I'll be able to get more sleep. :)

Michigan

Ryan and I took a trip with our good friends, Eric and Jessica, to Boyne Falls, Michigan in June. (I know, a little late, but I've had computer problems lately.)

Anyway, on the way up there, we stopped in Indianapolis to eat at Fogo de Chao for lunch. The food was really good, but I think the best part of our experience there was when one of the waiters kept pressing me for what I wanted for my free birthday dessert. I kept telling him I'd like to think about it a minute. I don't know if he didn't hear me or couldn't understand, but he kept saying, "Cheesecake?...Chocolate cake?...Creme brulee?" Ryan, Eric and Jessica all started laughing, and it took everything I had to hold it together.

We then continued our trek up to northern Michigan. We were excited to see the place we were staying. The pictures of the place online looked great, but you never really know what you're going to get.

We were there for a week, which was absolutely wonderful. Praise the Lord for vacations!

Our days were filled with golf, tennis, hiking, biking, kayaking, paddleboating and swimming. The nights were filled with games--Rook, Settlers, Catch Phrase and Guesstures.

Some highlights from the trip:

•Lunch at Fogo de Chao in Indianapolis.
•The boys decided to each stuff a VERY large pancake into their mouths just to see if it would fit.
•Ryan chipped a golf ball at Eric and hit him in the ankle from about 30 yards away.
•Riding the ski lift up the mountain with our bikes.
•I busted on my bike while we were riding down a mountain. (I think my bike and I both did a front flip, which was pretty scary. Praise the Lord for bike helmets!)
•Eric fell backwards in his chair while we were playing Guesstures.
•Rocking out to Lionel Richie, Journey and some other great ones on the way home, all courtesy of Eric's iPod.
•Handstand contests in the pool--point those toes! :)

Of course there are too many wonderful memories to recount here, but thank you, Eric and Jessica, for a great time in Michigan!

Barbeque, Berries and Bonding

This is ridiculous how behind I am on blogging, but here's another attempt to catch up:

•In May, yes two months ago, we had a Memorial Day Cook-Out with our Sunday school class at the Wellums' home. There was lots of good food, not to mention Hillbilly Horseshoe, Cornhole, badminton and bubbles for the kids.

•A couple weeks later, we went with the Sosebees to Joe Huber Farm to pick some strawberries. Ryan and I had never picked anything out there, and I was so excited about fresh strawberries. My goodness they smelled so good! We then ate some good ole' Southern home cooked food--fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, the works.

We froze some of the strawberries when we got home and have almost finished all of them. We ate them plain, over ice cream and even made some absolutely delicious strawberry shortcake. The strawberry shortcake was so good that I think it now sits toward the top of both of our favorite desserts list.

•Our Sunday school class had a girls' night at our house a few weeks ago. It was wedding-themed so everyone brought their wedding albums to look through. We played fun little wedding games and ate some typical wedding food--cake, chocolate covered strawberries, after dinner mints, nuts and some punch.

Kristi gave a devotional emphasizing the importance of not letting our guards down in our marriage. Unfortunately, we know several Christian couples who have gotten a divorce, and it's such a good reminder that it can happen to anyone. We need to daily choose to love our spouse as Christ loved the church, and we have to seek to make God the center of our marriage.

Anyway, it was a great night hanging out with some beautiful godly women.

Celebrating and Planting

So, I've been really bad about blogging. Though I'm glad I did it, I think writing about Niger kind of zapped my blogging energy.

Anyway, there's probably lots to catch up on, but I'll save most of it until we find the cord to download the pictures off of our camera. Hopefully that won't take too long.

I did come across a few pictures I wanted to share.


We had our sixth anniversary in Niger, but we celebrated it again after Ryan finished his finals. We went out to eat at Del Frisco's, which, incidentally, is also where we ate for my birthday the first year we were married. The only difference was the location--Fort Worth vs. Louisville. Who would have guessed then how God would have worked things to bring us to Kentucky!? Praise the Lord that He is sovereign because I'm certain that my plans would not have turned out nearly as well. Anyway, dinner was fun and the free dessert afterward was even better! :)

In God's perfect timing, He brought a wonderful couple into our lives--Adam and Andi Graig. We met them right before we left for Niger, and they were definitely a Godsend in helping us (mainly me) deal with the reverse culture shock. They recently returned from China and were dealing with some of the same feelings we were having.

Anyway, Andi spent many, many long hours helping me with our landscaping. She definitely has a green thumb, and well, I had never planted a thing in my life before moving into this house. Actually, I take that back, I think we planted a lima bean in a paper cup in elementary school, but that's been the extent of it.














The landscaping of our house had been neglected for some time, so there was quite a bit of work to do. We spent a long time just pulling out all the lava rock so we could plant more stuff. We even moved a Rhododendron (basically a small, flowering tree) from the front to backyard. I might post some before and after pictures later, but here's a picture of our Rhododendron before we moved it.

Niger: Day Seven

*Most of the pictures from today were taken with Dr. Martin’s camera so Brad and our guide didn’t have to take the same picture with 10 different cameras. I’ll post more pictures later when we get our CD compilation of all the pictures everyone took in Niger.

There was some confusion as to our flight schedule. I think we were originally scheduled to leave Niger Thursday evening or Friday morning, but it had been changed to where we left very late on Friday night. Brad was unaware of this change until we got there, so our Friday schedule was wide open. Brad suggested we go on a giraffe safari, which he said was one of his favorite things to do there.


We slept in a little bit that morning and left the guesthouse around 8. We then drove out to the place where the giraffes were. A giraffe guide got in our bus and we took off driving across the land. We were off-roading, which in terms of bumpiness really wasn’t much different from driving on the roads there.

We all kept watch to find some giraffes, and it didn’t take too long before we saw our first one. There were actually two giraffes, but one was a little farther away. We stopped the bus, all got out and slowly walked toward the closest giraffe. Brad told us that the closest we should get was about ten yards away. We walked up until that point and then stopped to take some pictures. I also got some great shots of the giraffe eating leaves off a tree. Check out that tongue!



























We saw a few more giraffes as we drove around, as well as these two kids leading a couple of cows pulling a cart. The kids let us pile around the cows and cart so we could take a picture. We also saw these three camels.


As we were leaving, we came across this massive rock-looking thing. Brad told us it was actually a termite mound. That’s right—an enormous termite mound! I even crawled up on it to get a picture, but I didn’t see any termites while I was up there.


We finished up with our safari and headed back to the guesthouse to pack and to do our debriefing for the trip. That night, we had dinner at the same restaurant as the night before but this time we had pizza! It was so good.

After dinner, we finished packing and just hung out until our flight late that evening. Our flight was originally scheduled to leave around 11pm, but it was delayed a few hours. The flights home were long and filled with delays, but we were so thankful to make it back to the U.S. By the time we got back to Louisville, it was about 2:30 on Sunday morning. We were completely exhausted from our long travels, but it was wonderful to climb into our big, comfy bed.