One night, April 9, 2024 to be exact, I was at home scrolling Instagram & saw that one of my favorite bands, Casting Crowns, playing at The Ryman. I had been having a rough time post pandemic & had been feeling down. So I was really bummed I missed the opportunity to see them in Nashville. The next day, I made myself get out of the house. I went for a drive over to one of my favorite shops. I bought a 365-day devotional book by Max Lucado called You Can Count on God. I pledged one year of dedicating myself to spending time with Jesus. I focused on my faith, family & fellowship. I started volunteering as a kindergarten Sunday School teacher. I was feeling better, like I was shedding the depression fog I had found myself in but I still couldn’t help feeling lonely. I would write prayers in the margins of my Bible asking for my future husband, in hopes he would find me. One night, I was scrolling TikTok, I saw a girl talking about how she had just started seeing a guy but she was not sure if he was for her. She asked God if He would send her a sign of a purple elephant if this guy was right for her. The next time he showed up at her place, he was holding a purple elephant stuffed animal! In that moment, I looked up saying, “Okay God, let’s do this! Send me a BLUE DUCK.” In that moment I felt like a 12-year-old boy using a Billy Madison reference for my prayer, but, I was raised on Adam Sandler. And I’d never seen a blue duck! I ran up to my Bible & scribbled in the margins of my prayers for my future husband, asking for my blue duck, noting it in Ephesians 5. As the year went on, Nate, up in Valparaiso, was offered a job that required him to relocate to Nashville. He moved down in November of 2024, settling into an apartment in downtown Nashville, 2.1 miles down the very street I lived on. Fast forward to 2025. I looked down to see April 1. I stopped for a prayer: “Lord, I have given you a year. Please hear my prayers as we approach this anniversary.” Three days later, it was a Friday. I went to pull up Postmates as I had decided on a night in. But my thumb opened Bumble. I hate online dating & would scroll just to send photos of all the weirdos to my mom as she insisted that online dating could be successful, which was always met with an eye roll from me. As I looked through my likes, a tall, dark, handsome man with a tiny cheerleader caught my eye. I matched with him & made myself message him. On Bumble they leave that to the girls. Again, eye roll. Nate replied & we found ourselves in some basketball banter about who is the bluer blood in college basketball, Kansas or Duke. I have the trump card there as KU’s first coach literally invented the game. We agreed on a date that night but not before I sat down with my Bible & wrote a prayer, right there in Ephesians 5:22: “Lord, bless this date. – 4/4/25.” We met at Neighbors in The Gulch. We connected on worldviews, politics, faith & would you believe it, Nate brought up Ephesians 5 on our date. My interest was piqued to say the least. We finished at the bar & decided to walk down to Pins Mechanical, a DUCKPIN bowling & arcade bar. We had some drinks, bowled some games, then Nate got quarters for us to play pinball. Before we left, Nate held out his hand with the remaining quarters & told me to take one as a keepsake. I flipped them over, making sure to see them all. Then I flipped it: a quarter with a duck on it. My heart skipped a beat knowing it was God telling me, six days before our “anniversary”, that this was my husband. We wasted no time. The next morning we met my parents for some drinks out in Franklin. I had told my mom the duck story & when we walked into the bar at The Harpeth Hotel, a huge decoy was sitting on top of the hostess stand. My mom started laughing, knowing we were in trouble. Since then we see ducks everywhere. We look at them as ‘God winks’ telling us everything will be okay in life if we have each other & as long as we seek Him, always.