morning quote: 8:42 AM

"to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; that is to have succeeded."

- ralph waldo emerson

its been a couple days since we posted last... sorry about that! its so interesting how different each of our stops have been.... currently we are in cincinnati, ohio staying with jason's family... i love how being with someone's family helps you understand that person so much more :) its been really nice talking with his parents and his great aunt and siblings and friends.... we continue to find that showing love most frequently comes through listening.

tonight a couple of fun things stand out in my mind.... we were at walgreens and emily and i were waiting for jason and his sister kelsey to finnish up so we were up at the front and we started talking with the woman at the cash register.... she was really friendly and very interesting and as we told her about what we we doing and about our school and everything she very quickly opened up and told us all about her kids and her life... its so cool how when you take the time to listen people will really open up and share their lives and their stories with you. peoples hearts come out with their words.

just before we ended up at walgreens we had gone to get ice cream. we walked into graeters literally as they were turning off the "Open" sign. but the kids at the counter were very happy to serve us (even though we took forever trying to decide what to get! we taste tested at least 4 different flavors!). after we all had our ice cream and we were eating and talking i overheard them disappointedly counting the tip money and i thought, "oh! hey! do we have cash! we should give them our business cards and a big tip!" because they were super helpful and patient and friendly and they totally deserved a good tip. we gathered up some tip money and just as they were asking us to leave so they could lock up we went up to them to hand them the money and when the guy saw the amount he got so excited and started hugging us and stuff..... it was so much fun! i was so glad that we were able to share some love with them simply through smiles and a nice tip :)

tomorrow we are going to jason's grandfathers birthday party where we will be surrounded by a whole bunch of people... so that should give us lots of opportunities to ask peoples opinions/thoughts on love. its going to be a good day!

btw, if you haven't seen toy story 3 yet.... go see it!

good night and sweet dreams :) <3ginger

Thinking of you 2:31 AM

dear friends, we miss you and we hope you're having lovely summers.... if we haven't found you along our travels yet then we will later! <3

fireflies and free coffee 5:59 AM

I have been driving a lot these last 2 days. I sort of fall into this solo zone while I’m driving… I’m listening to the music and intently focusing on the road. Early evening I was driving through Missouri and I’m staring straight ahead just watching the broken white line pass beneath us and the monotony of the green on both sides and I suddenly see this yellow speck… and then another… and another….

Eyes wide, I gasp, “ohhh!’

Emily, who is in the front seat beside me, is always very safety conscious so she responds with, “what is it?!”

“A lightning bug! There are lightning bugs, err fireflies? yeah fireflies, here! Oh I love fireflies! Look there’s another one! And another! Oh they are so cool! Why are they not everywhere?!” I ramble on in excitement.

Emily just shakes her head at me.

But I really do love those things, they are so interesting to me. I love the way they just surprise you. Appearing almost out of nowhere with such a small light, when the rest of the world is dark. And even though its small you can’t miss it. And when they are in groups they are even more exiting! I was thinking about how we are like fireflies in the world. With each act of love our light blinks. Together we sparkle more, and I don’t know about you but I find sparkly lights to be quite attractive :)

Earlier today we stopped at a starbucks to grab a frap for em and we spontaneously decided to pay for the girls in front of us… its always fun to ask people if we can pay for them. They always react in shock and surprise and then we go on to explain what we’re doing and the girls got really excited… it makes me even more excited about it! I hope they enjoyed their coffee and maybe we were able to inspire them to pass on the love.

Later Jason and I decided to stop at another starbucks, because we were on driving duty for the last leg of the trip to Cincinnati. We walk in and order and this really gentle and friendly older woman begins making our drinks. We start to hand her our money and she smiled and shook her head saying, “this ones on me.” We thanked her and headed back to the car talking about how it’s funny to be on the other side of generosity. Jason was saying how he just doesn’t really expect it and almost isn’t sure how to react. It makes you feel special and singled out. To be completely honest… as I was driving I wondered if maybe we would get free starbucks today… the other day I received a fortune cookie and my fortune read,

“you will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept it graciously.”

I’m not one to believe every fortune…. But I thought that was kind of cool :)

I can’t wait to see whats coming in these next couple days!

~ginger~

traveling.... 5:52 AM

Fresh 3:29 AM

As emily said this morning, salt lake city was a really fun different sort of stop. It’s the first time we were able to work with kids, and that was a blast! Kids are just so refreshing… they say things so simply and aren’t afraid to ask blunt questions.

I drew pictures with a little 3 year old girl named alice… she was very sweet and kind of shy and quiet but she liked drawing the stems onto all of the flowers I drew and drawing swirlies around the sunshine… I asked her what love was and she just smiled and kept drawing… and it showed me that just the act of spending time with her was love. I also talked with a 9 year old girl named Yesandra, it was a little bit easier to tell her about our love project. She wanted to know all about my family and my home. She shared that love is helping people who are hurt. Another 9 year old girl, Elizabeth simply drew a heart.

These kids were so interested just in talking and listening to us. One thing I noticed was their attention to family… asking about ours and telling us about theirs. The leader of the playroom was handing out popsicles and all the kids were grabbing at least 2 or 3 extras so they could take them to their mom and dad and little siblings. I know I haven’t always been the best at loving my family. It’s easy to neglect them when there are so many things going on, but they are the ones that are there for me no matter what.

Regardless of your family situation, loving those who are closest to you is the biggest display of compassion, self-sacrifice, and understanding (because its definitely the hardest). Maybe your family isn’t showing love to you or to each other… and that does hurt, but maybe the best way to change that is to be an example of unconditional love yourself. Two ways to do that are; being quick to listen and slow to become angry, and being patient. I’m learning just how important those things are.

Today we drove about 650 – 700 miles…. About 11 hours of driving. Tonight we are in Nebraska. And it is time for sleep!

:) ginger

btw... here are some oldies but goodies that came from my disposable :)

today today I live for one thing... 1:34 PM

Yesterday we were able to connect with the Road Home (http://www.theroadhome.org/) in Salt Lake City. They are doing some great stuff here! Their mission is to help homeless families and individuals to get off the streets and back into the community. We had discussed fixing dinner for them, but after we talked with the volunteer coordinator we found out it was too short notice. However we could still volunteer to help out in the Playroom later that night :) Since the dinner didn't work out we wanted to help in another way. So we found out that the Road Home asks for birthday bags to help the parents of kids who are celebrating birthdays. I think we all really loved the idea so we set out to Super Target to stock up.

The birthday bags were asked to be made up of things like cake mix, icing, brownies, disposable pans, candles, party favors, and gift cards. We compiled them all together this morning and will be dropping them off in just a few minutes :)

In the Playroom last night we were able to talk and play with a lot of different kids :D and they were superrrr cute. Some friends in the area came with us and at first seemed a bit overwhelmed. The room was full of very loud, very active kids ranging from ages 3 to 11. I think one of my favorite things to see was Jason and Avner awkwardly standing by themselves and talking when this little girl suddenly ran up and grabbed Jason's hand. She just stood there smiling at him, not saying anything. Haha the look on the boys faces was a mix of embarrassment, uncertainty, and obvious amusement. In the end everyone became more comfortable and we had some fun conversations with the kids. We also were sure to bring along some paper and crayons and ask the kids what love was to them. We got all kind of responses, from some very silly/joking ones, to some really beautiful genuine ones. Ging took a group picture of those we'll put up later. I'm so glad we'll have them for the art show :D

We'll now it's on the road again! Colorado here we come

<33emilyy>