We made it through our first state! Washington is out of the way, but certainly not forgotten. In the last couple days in Washington we had a very cool opportunity to work directly with the Executive Director of the Ronald McDonald House. Through him we were able to do tours of two nearby children's hospitals. During the tours, we met kids with varying forms of illness and different disabilities, but their attitude was always the same. Happiness, and hope. It has been proven that many cancer treatments have a higher success rate with children and that that success is directly correlated to their attitude that they go about their lives, and we got to see that today. One little girl, Annesia, a Leukemia patient that is three years old was one of the patients that touched all of our hearts. Dressed from head to toe in pink with a smiling face and an attitude to go along with it. Her good spirit and heart showed all of us what we are biking for, particularly in one instance. I was sitting on a bench with Ronald McDonald and a young boy named Justin. Justin and I were talking about Nickelodeon and his favorite shows, but it took quite a bit of time to get him to talk. He was very shy and seemed to be a little bit down. While I was sitting with him Annesia came and sat on the bench next to Justin and I, put her arm around him and said "Its all going to be ok" She sat with us for a little bit longer while we talked about his favorite television shows, and he significantly improved in his mood through our interaction. Although it was a small gesture it showed us that we are all in this together and even the smallest things can make a difference.

I have posted pictures that can be accessed through the "photos" tab along the top of the page