Tootsie Roll

This morning as I was putting my lunch together in my little Igloo portable cooler, Evie hopped up on her tip-toes a couple times to see inside. Then she ran around to the other side of the counter and said, "I'll give you a treat for your lunch!" She grabbed her bag of candy from the parade the night before and picked out a little Tootsie Roll for me and dropped it into the cooler (I'm eating it now), and I thanked her and gave her a big hug. It was the perfect treat.

Evie has an inherent generosity and love bigger than anyone I know. She loves sugar -- I often have to make her stop eating large amounts of whatever sweet thing she has (she inherited my sweet-tooth, which I got from my dad) -- but she willingly shared her candy with me, no prompting at all.

Mirjam has told me that when she plays with our friend's autistic daughters, sometimes she'll get pinched, bitten, pushed, squeezed, or have her hair pulled, but her response is not crying or fear. She grimaces and laughs as best she can while telling the other girl, "That's enough" in a very kind, motherly way.

(William, too, is very generous with the other kids. It's uncanny how well they all play together.)

It's incredible to me how loving and generous Evie is. It is truly a gift to have such an enormous heart like that. And she is truly a gift to me and our family.

Motel 6 and AmericInn

Last summer I packed the family in our new (pre-owned) green minivan and headed to Utah for my cousin's funeral. It was a quick trip, there and back in less than a week. Going both directions we stayed overnight at a Motel 6 in Big Springs, Nebraska. William and Evie loved it.

I remember as a child the excitement about staying at a hotel. The rarity of it, the big beds, already made for you. The TV in your room. Going door to door and visiting friends in their rooms. It was just exciting. And William and Evie we're excited, too.

When we drove to Texas for Christmas last year, too, we stayed at a dingy, beat-up Motel 6 on the south side of Des Moines, near the airport. Still, the kids were thrilled. We got there late at night, and I carried them from the car to the bed, where I'm pretty sure they excitedly snuggled under the blankets, even if half asleep. Of course, the next morning they were ecstatic to be in a Motel 6, and couldn't wait to turn on the TV in their room!

On the way back from Texas, I decided to forego the Motel 6 in Iowa and drive straight through to home, even though I knew the kids wanted to stay overnight again, and I knew the last few hours would be the most tiring. In the end, looking back, I probably should have stopped at the Motel 6 one last time. It was like a slumber party with the family.

William and Evie now recognize the big blue and red sign glowing over the freeway; when they see it they say, "Motel 6!" And a couple days ago I found an unopened little Motel 6 soap at the bottom of some box. I gave it to William and Evie yesterday morning, and they were both so excited to get it, especially William. "It's Motel 6 soap!" He ran to his bathroom to try it out and wanted to show me how he could make it pop up, slipping out of his hand by squeezing it tightly through his little fingers.

Also, when Ben and Jenne got married in Wisconsin a couple years ago, we stayed at the AmericInn, which they also loved, just a couple doors down from Grandma and Grandpa, whom they loved to visit in their room. I think I remember Evie (or maybe William) discovering that their room was just like ours!

Upon returning to our home, we passed by another AmericInn just down the road from our house. As we passed by, he cleverly proclaimed, "Schau mal, unser Hotel!" We didn't understand what he meant for a second, until we realized he had recognized the big sign high on top of the pole, above the hotel building. We had passed by it a hundred times and never made the connection, but he did. Now even sometimes still today, he'll see it and say the same thing as we drive by.

And sometimes I'll point it out to him, just to hear him say it again.