too wonderful

My cousin Angie and her husband Ryan are pregnant with their second child!

I was thinking about them as I rode my bike to work this morning because today they find out if they will be having a little baby boy or a little baby girl. As I thought about my own personal predictions it struck me that God already knows the gender of this baby, He doesn’t have to guess or make predictions like we all do, He already knows. And, more then that, He knows everything about this baby, things that doctors don’t know and can’t know, things that will happen in the life of this baby. He knows everything.

I was consumed with the bigness of God in that moment. I felt small. But I also felt comfort in the reminder again of God’s sovereignty, His goodness, His grace when we don’t deserve grace and His mercy when we don’t deserve mercy.

Psalm 139:1-16
"O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence"
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
even there Your hand will lead me,
and Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, "surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
and the light around me will be night,"
even the darkness is not dark to You,
and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
wonderful are Your works,
and my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret,
and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
and in Your book were all written
the days that were ordained for me,
when as yet there was not one of them."

A lot of people I have conversations with talk about there being a higher power. They say that they just know there is something bigger then them out there. I feel the same way. I felt that way this morning as I rode my bike with the wind in my face.

I know Who this Higher Power is. Romans 1:20 talks about it this way, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." That higher power is God, the creator of the universe and of the little baby girl that Ryan and Angie will have in about 4 1/2 months from now!

just do it

So here I go, I'm just gonna do it, and attempt to update you on what’s been going on in our lives this past year!

Because I believe that I failed to mention it last year, Ryan did graduate from Portland State last fall and we were all very proud and relieved (mostly me) that he was finally done with school!!! Congratulations hunny!

The fall was a busy time for us, my little brother Jacob graduated from high school and went off to the University of Oregon. So now we have another Duck in the family and that makes Ryan very happy because now he has someone who can get as excited as he does about watching the football games in the fall.

And then my other little brother Joseph got married last October to Nikki. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year already!


At the start of 2011, Ryan continued to work part time at our church and also for the Hillsboro school district. We were very thankful for the work, but there was a huge underlying question in our minds of, “what’s next, when are we going to really move forward, what are we going to do?” These feelings and questions where often accompanied by anxiety and in some instances even distrust. It was tough.

The Lord lovingly kept us in that state until both Ryan and I had worked through surrendering our desire for control, and confessing any sin that was keeping us from being able to move forward. The minute we did that, the stars started to align!

Doors just started opening for Ryan. It began with Ryan applying for a job in customer service at Nike Golf. For over a month Ryan was so faithful to network and develop relationships with people at Nike Golf. While this job seemed like the dream job to us, the Lord had another plan. Through all of Ryan’s networking, an opening in a brand new department at Nike was make known to him.

It seemed to good to be true. The job would fit him perfectly, it was as if it were tailor made to fit just Ryan… maybe it was. Well after about another month of phone interviews and one face to face meeting, my husband was hired on at Nike in this new department! I was so ecstatic! I couldn't stop smiling for days! We both just felt so blessed (and still do)! Right now Ryan is contracted through Kelly Services to work at Nike, but we are praying that he will get hired on as a permanent Nike employee.

Ryan works as an operations specialist for a brand new group whose focus is to demonstrate that there is a major global issue surrounding physical in-activity. Their goal is to have Nike lead the way on re-incorporating physical activity into our lives. It’s a very neat thing to be a part of and is even changing the way that Ryan and I live our lives.

It’s almost been three months now that Ryan has been at Nike and almost every day he comes home from work and says “I have the dream job”. I just smile. We couldn’t have planned the details of Ryan’s job better if we had tried. We are so glad that we gave everything up and let the Lord take it for us.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, accoring to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

craving the sun

My body is craving the sun like crazy right now. It seems my pup feels the same way. Yesterday when I came home on my lunch break I let him out in the back yard and before long he was sitting in the sun soaking up the rays.

A few minutes later I peaked my head out and he had moved to the cement patio where it was warmer. Smart dog.

Just like my body is craving the sun, my soul is so desperately craving the Son, and the sweet rest found in the arms of my Savior Jesus Christ. When I'm weak He is my strength. When I'm joyless, He gives me joy.

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God" Psalm 42:1