{"id":3047,"date":"2012-07-07T11:35:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T15:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catchingfireflies.com\/blog\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2012-07-19T15:11:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T19:11:03","slug":"a-journey-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/a-journey-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"a journey to remember"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been almost two weeks since Tessa, our German exchange student returned to Deutschland&#8230; sniff, sniff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/welcome.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3048\" title=\"greeting Tessa at the airport\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/welcome.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/welcome.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/welcome-300x170.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rewind to August 2011 &#8211; When we decided to have a 15 year old girl we didn&#8217;t know from another country live with us for 10 months, many people thought we were a bit crazy&#8230; and maybe we were, but don&#8217;t decisions like those make life more exciting, fulfilling &amp; memorable? (<em>I mean &#8211; some people also thought we were crazy when Steve quit his job &amp; we opened catching fireflies 12 years ago<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to July 2012 &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/?s=tessa\">Looking back at the past 10 months<\/a> that literally flew by, Steve &amp; I both agree it would have been crazy for us to miss such a wonderful experience.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-photos-blog.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3066\" title=\"tessa's time in the states\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-photos-blog.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"599\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-photos-blog.jpg 599w, http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-photos-blog-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-photos-blog-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Officially, Tessa was the one who was on a journey, but her time with us took Steve &amp; me places that we&#8217;ll never forget.\u00a0 I wanted to give Tessa a going away present that reflected our time together &amp; also celebrated what her future holds so I did what I know best&#8230; made her a special picture frame.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-frame.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3049\" title=\"custom picture frame\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-frame.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"758\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-frame.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tessa-frame-237x300.jpg 237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I created a chronological journey with tiny thumbnail photos of her time with us and used it as a patterned paper for the top of the frame.\u00a0 No doubt she has many more magnificent miles ahead of her, but it&#8217;s incredibly gratifying to know that Steve &amp; I shared many steps with her along the way. \u00a0 We&#8217;re honored to have a chapter in her life story and are looking forward to what she writes next.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in hosting a student, I encourage you to check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yfu-usa.org\/host-families.php\" target=\"_blank\">YFU (Youth for Understanding)<\/a>.\u00a0 They have been a great organization to work with &amp; they&#8217;re still placing students for this upcoming school year.\u00a0 You can view profiles of available students <a href=\"http:\/\/yfuusa.org\/host-families\/student-profiles.php\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"flaresmith\" class=\"feedflare\"><script src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~s\/http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/catchingfireflies\/TyNo?i=http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/a-journey-to-remember\/\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div><div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/a-journey-to-remember\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 944859;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been almost two weeks since Tessa, our German exchange student returned to Deutschland&#8230; sniff, sniff. Rewind to August 2011 &#8211; When we decided to have a 15 year old girl we didn&#8217;t know from another country live with us for 10 months, many people thought we were a bit crazy&#8230; and maybe we were, but don&#8217;t decisions like those make life more exciting, fulfilling &amp; memorable? (I mean &#8211; some people also thought we were crazy when Steve quit his job &amp; we opened catching fireflies 12 years ago) Fast forward to July 2012 &#8211; Looking back at the past 10 months that literally flew by, Steve &amp; I both agree it would have been crazy for us to miss such a wonderful experience. Officially, Tessa was the one who was on a journey, but her time with us took Steve &amp; me places that we&#8217;ll never forget.\u00a0 I wanted to give Tessa a going away present that reflected our time together &amp; also celebrated what her future holds so I did what I know best&#8230; made her a special picture frame. I created a chronological journey with tiny thumbnail photos of her time with us and used it&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/a-journey-to-remember\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 944859;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2522],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-pad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3094,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions\/3094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}