[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. If you think you had a unique childhood, wait until you hear this next story. This young woman has been on reality TV since the age of 10. And for nearly 18 years, she appeared on TLC’s hit TV shows such as 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. Friends, meet Ginger Duggar Volo. Oh, you guys, I was so excited to talk to Ginger. I used to watch their show on TLC, but there was a lot I actually learned from this conversation. Such as the amount of guys who were fans of the show and would send them messages, including letters from prison. And the 50-page questionnaire her future husband, Jeremy, had to fill out to get her dad’s approval. Not to marry her, but to date her. And what was the first Duggar family rule she broke after getting married? And how some of her childhood experiences and family rules were kind of similar to Kevin’s. That is true. And how many kids does she and her husband plan to have? You guys, we can’t wait for to hear this conversation with Ginger Duggar Volo. I’m Kevin. And I’m Steph. And during our marriage, we’ve dealt with an electrocution,

[1:04] a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us the children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed, completely restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us a Good Story.

[1:27] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple Podcasts or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. All right, Steph, are you ready for this? I can’t believe this is happening. We’ve been looking forward to this. Legit have grown up watching her. I am so freaking excited right now. Well, friends, our next guest grew up on television from the young age of 10. For nearly 18 years, she appeared on TLC’s hit reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, and Counting On. She is a New York Times bestselling author, a mom of two, soon to be three, and hands down she was the coolest Duggar kid.

[2:28] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us Good Story, Mrs. Ginger Duggar Bolo.

[2:34] Thank you guys. That’s very kind of you. Well, thank you for saying yes to us. As you can tell, we are super excited to talk to you. The first thing I’m curious about when I was thinking about you and putting myself in your shoes as one of 19 kids, what happened when you would show up to a restaurant, right? Did your family just clear out these restaurants that I would have like kids eat free that you would show up and they’re just like, Oh my gosh, like all of them are getting free. Like how did that work? How does this happen? When you show up at these restaurants? I know this. Okay. Like that was my childhood in that shell. So we would not eat out very often, but when we did, we would definitely hit up those kids eat free restaurants. And half of the time, I think they were probably like, why are you coming in here? And very quickly, very quickly, they started saying, okay, it’s per paying adults, or you have to, if they’re 12 or older, then that can also be another adult. So they have to make sure that they add them on because we don’t have enough adults to bring the kids.

[3:38] So yeah, we, we, and then we also ate like a lot of AQ out back, which is like a huge thing in our area. It was very good food, but they had 49-cent kids’ meal nights. So we would go to this restaurant and we would hit it up. I mean, it had the best, chicken. It had like sides and rolls and all this food. I don’t know how they made that for 49 since they were losing money on us and

[4:04] all of our big family friends, all that. So it was, yeah, it was a good time. I think restaurants probably were very sad to see us come in. Okay. I have a question. If you guys would order pizza, how many pizzas would you guys have to order probably 10 maybe like 12 yeah cheese depends on when what season of life but yeah i think when we’re all like older probably somewhere around 12 pizzas and you’re this you’re the sixth oldest right out of 19 yes okay i am so that probably means you had to take a care of a lot of your younger siblings right yeah i had a couple so we we had like a buddy system okay and so i was like i had two that i would help take care of so then what was it like ginger.

[4:50] When you get married and it’s only you two. Like, was that like the best thing ever? Or was it hard? Going from like 21 in a house to now it’s just two. Yeah, it was super quiet and strange because we moved into like a little two bedroom apartment on the border of Mexico in Laredo, Texas.

[5:07] It was a very different life and it was super chill. And I just thought, wow, I don’t know if I like how quiet it is. And there are, like we had friends around from church, but it was different. Yeah, it was so insane. And the biggest thing for me was having to learn to cook for just two people.

[5:28] Because if I was cooking for my family, it was like massive sheets of veggies. So if we were to do roasted veggies for that evening, we would do like three large, massive commercial pans of those. And then we would do casseroles. Or if we were doing grilled chicken, it was like massive amounts. House so I had to learn how to cook for just two people and how to shop for two people on our honeymoon this was funny we went to the store because we were like at this cabin I was like oh I’m just gonna get some groceries it would be great you know some snacks and I went to the fruit section and I just naturally started stocking up on food. And I threw a couple bags of fruit in the cart. And Jeremy’s like, why are you buying bags of apples?

[6:14] And I said, what do you mean? And he said, you should be buying them separately. So he went and got one of those little bags you pull off the roll and you put like two apples in it. I said, I’ve never done that in my life. That is a first. I don’t know. I mean, we always buy like Costco, the biggest size. And so I just wasn’t thinking that way. I literally like was getting the biggest bags of apples and putting them in our cart. Like I always did. So it was really funny. So it’s like some of those adjustments too, where you’re not like cooking casseroles,

[6:47] you’re actually wanting to make like a decently presented meal. I had fun trying out new recipes when we were first married because I was like, okay, this is, this is interesting like now just having two people here i don’t want to have tons of leftovers, so i would make usually it would end up being at least for a couple meals because i just don’t know how to put two people okay so speaking about going on your honeymoon i’m curious like what’s the first rule that you broke right when you got married right is it i’m making this up right is you got a tattoo on your honeymoon right which would have definitely which would do it it’s never been a no-no yet um so yeah it i try to think if i broke any rules on my honeymoon.

[7:33] I mean, maybe like a sleeveless shirt. I think I wore jeans on my honeymoon at one point. That’s what I was going to ask you. When did you start wearing pants? Because in the show, you guys always wore skirts, right? Like the longer skirts. Yeah. And I was convicted. So before I moved out of the house, I was reading through the word and I just realized, okay, some of these things that I’ve thought were super, super serious and they were major things are not because I don’t see it in the Bible. So then I was like, okay, well, this gives me more freedom to like.

[8:07] Not feel like I have to keep up all those outward things. But at the same time, I also knew like, I don’t want to just rub it in everyone’s face. Like I get married and then I’m going to go do whatever. At the same time, I wasn’t convicted of it. So I think I wore like, jeans with like a long shirt, you know, on our honeymoon, maybe like a day, but we were also filming so i would also just try to like keep in dress code for for a lot of reasons was it you’re filming on your honeymoon yes well we we had like a maybe like i don’t know how many days we had in between where we just went um away by ourselves and then we flew to sydney australia and we’re followed around sydney how was that it’s interesting because a lot of people would be like wait they filmed you on your honeymoon what that’s so weird but at the same time it was all that i knew and having the crew there for every major milestone in my life. They were there when I learned to drive, when I learned to change a tire.

[9:04] When my siblings were born and they were like family. So having them show up for a few hours was not uncommon or weird. It was like what we do. So of course they’re coming on the honeymoon. And so we had our separate five days or something. we got to like go to, I think it was like Branson, Missouri. Somebody had gifted us that. And so we went over there. It’s like cabin, went to some shows, like just chill, ate food.

[9:30] And then we went and flew to Sydney and that’s where the crew filmed that honeymoon. So was that a hard adjustment for your husband, Jeremy, because he wasn’t used to that compared to cameras around all the time. Yeah, it was different. So like he had been in professional soccer, he had played quite a few years. And so he kind of like, he, he wasn’t, Thank you. Away from the public side of things, but in a different way. The reality show is next level. Right.

[9:57] I don’t know. Interaction in your personal life. And I think that was something that we had talked about early on because I was still filming and I would be for quite some time. And so he knew that him marrying in meant that he was going to join in. So I think initially it’s funny, like those old shows watching him. I’ve watched a couple clips. Some of it’s a little like cringe. I can’t go back and watch it. But anyhow, going back and watching a couple clips, I’m like, oh my goodness, he was so awkward or uncomfortable in that setting because it’s just, for us, it felt so natural. But then for, you know, someone coming in from the outside and then they’re asking you so many questions about your life and about your relationship and about if you want kids and how many you’re going to have and like all these questions immediately, you’re just bombarded. And then online, you’re bombarded with questions from others who are maybe not so kind or things like that. So I think any of the guys who married in kind of were thrown into the deep end with that.

[11:03] Friends, we have been asked to speak at a few events recently in regards to sharing some of our story, and it has been an absolute honor. We have a lot of personal stories to share that will hopefully inspire, encourage, and maybe even make you laugh. So if you’re hosting some type of event or need a guest speaker, we’re here to help. That’s right. Just go to kevinandsteph.com and click on the contact button. Like Steph said, let us know if we can be of help in any way, whether it’s our personal testimony of healing and hope or me just telling some jokes. Oh God, please, you guys, please don’t ask him to do that. But seriously, just go to kevinandsteph.com to contact us. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[11:43] So he professional soccer player how does he meet you i actually know because i watch the show and i’m all about it but i want our listeners but how did he meet you and then get kind of thrust into this amazing girl but she has 18 siblings and with a show like how did that all work crazy so he had met my brother-in-law ben and they became friends and then he would come visit our family and we went to Texas for something. He lived there. So that’s where we actually first met. And he just popped in when my family was visiting and I met him there. And I thought, wow, he’s, he’s a nice guy. Like I heard quite a bit about him and I was like attracted to that. But at the same time I was like, okay, well he’s older than me and he’s not going to be interested in me. So whatever, you know, like he just kind of pushed it out of your mind, but it wasn’t until later that year where we were going on a missions trip to Central America. And he signed up last minute because he had been talking to my brother-in-law Ben and just said, Hey, it’s kind of lonely being in the ministry, being single. He was pastoring that small church, like I said, on the border of Mexico. And he was asking the Lord would bring him a wife because he’d been pastoring for two and a half years as a single man. So anyhow, my brother-in-law was like, well, We have, you know, I have some sister-in-laws out there as a joke, but he had already like, you know, he didn’t know.

[13:13] He kind of knew who my family was at that point because it was kind of crazy.

[13:20] He had seen clips of the show because this family that he lived with, the pastor’s family while he played soccer in Texas, he they would like watch the show sometimes. And he would walk it through and kind of like, oh, that’s so weird. Kind of fun of it. Really? And anyhow, but then he met us and then he was like, still didn’t know what we were all about. He didn’t know what all teachings I was into, all that stuff.

[13:44] And he was kind of, yeah, he was an outsider with all that. He had a lot of info. But once we met and then he would come out and visit here and there, Ben and Jess. And then he saw me and had an interest. And so then he signed up for this trip a week before I went to El Salvador. And we ended up falling in love in El Salvador. And so it was great. And then he talked to my dad for five and a half months to gain his approval. And then we were able to move forward in our relationship and start talking. Okay, you were asking. I have so many questions, Ginger, about what you just said. Okay, first off, can you share some of the rules you had from a dating perspective

[14:23] or courting perspective? Yeah. I guess that’s the first question of what you just said. What were some of the rules you had growing up? There were a lot of rules, but it was based in this teaching of Bill Bothard. So he would say that he had all the answers to life’s problems. So if your kid’s rebelling, he’s going to give you all these helpful tips to help them walk with the Lord. It’s a guarantee for success for your family that they will all turn out well, all love Jesus, and remain pure. So that was the heart behind it. A lot of parents jumped in thinking this is the answer. and it was a solution outside of having to like really trust the Lord with your kids, put them in a good church setting. It was like, no, you can just follow this prescription and they’re going to be fine. So anyhow, some of the rules were very external. So you had like where girls would only wear skirts, they wouldn’t work outside of the home.

[15:12] And if you wanted to be in a relationship, you should do courtship, no traditional dating, which basically is like they go through the father and gain that approval, which, you know, I think there are some positive sides of that where maybe in the world today, we kind of lose some of the beauty of having, you know, family know who you’re actually dating and not like this flaky culture about it. But it was also very legalistic and wrong in a lot of ways because it was like, well, you have to have chaperones with you all the time. And it was a little bit difficult in that. And then we had other rules, like you can’t listen to music with drums because then you’re calling demons into your life. And there were just tons of things like no cabbage patch dolls in the house because then it’s going to bring God’s wrath upon you because of that. So like a lot of strange things that we would abide by as like our every day. And we didn’t have TV in the house. We were homeschooled. So a very, very unique life. And at the same time, I mean, that was our normal. Yeah. There was no birth control allowed of any kind and no natural family planning. And so you leave that up to the Lord, which is why my parents had 19 kids. And then no going into debt, not even a mortgage.

[16:29] So yeah, those were a few of the rules that we grew up under. All right. I had the same rules for about half of those. He actually did. For about half of those, I had about the same rules. Okay. Didn’t have the drums. I mean, a lot of the same thing. Kind of the same thing. Yeah. Right. But is it true, Ginger, that your dad had like a 50 page questionnaire that your future husband had to fill out? Is that true? Yeah. So before when we were in El Salvador, he was like, Jeremy had to come home a little bit early from the trip. So he was there for only a week. We were there for like two and a half or something. So after that first week, he talked to my dad like, hey, I’m interested in your daughter.

[17:07] Like, what would I do to like, you know, can I just chat with her? And my dad’s like, well, let’s talk for a couple of weeks and just see.

[17:13] And he sent him a 50-page questionnaire for him to fill out. And that questionnaire, you know, it’s interesting. Like, looking back, I would say it makes sense why he had it. Because we had so many guys who were interested in us. People writing from prison. People writing from, like, having no clue who we were. They just watched the show and were like, oh, she’s pretty. I want to just marry her. And you had to sort through. There had to be a process. And so I get it with an outsider. It’s not like he was somebody that they knew there was not like a real connection, maybe my brother-in-law, but not even super long. So, so there was like, had to be a vetting process. So my dad, he heard of a friend who had this questionnaire. He was like, huh, this can actually like just guys weren’t serious. You know, you send it to them and they’ll just back off, like sort through who these guys actually are. And I asked you every single question. Some of them are a little personal, but it really actually broke down, what’s your five-year goal? What’s your 10-year goal? Do you have any college debt? Do you want to have kids? How many kids do you want to have? What was your family situation?

[18:24] What do you see as the most important thing? What do you want to avoid? It breaks down every single area from your religious upbringing to when you were saved to your family history, medical history. I mean, you go through it. It was very thorough. So if you make it through the questionnaire and you are approved, then kudos to you, you know? Yeah. Great. So Jeremy, he filled it out within like, I think a day and a half because he was traveling back to his family’s house from the missions trip for Christmas. And he filled that thing out real quick and sent it back to my dad. Oh, I ended up seeing some of it. I think my dad showed me maybe a couple pages of it, but I didn’t. I think he was just kind of like, yeah, I don’t get your hopes up because we don’t really know this guy. You know, like, who is he? So anyhow, it was one way to vet people.

[19:16] I honestly, Ginger… I would have never thought, because you’re right, you’re in the public eye. I’m sure you had crazy people trying to get in touch with you guys. Let’s be honest, all of you girls are beautiful. Like, I get the protection that your dad is trying to protect you guys from the crazies, right? But also, Ginger would know, this guy is serious if he’s taking the time to do a 50-page bar exam. He’s like, he’s taking the bar exam, right? To give to her father.

[19:45] You probably had like once you found out that jeremy did that you’re like oh he he is serious about me and that probably made him like touch you yeah and he fell out so quickly and sent him back and then they started talking and stuff and the two weeks turned into five and a half months and i think they just had a lot to talk through and when you look at a process any sort of process that a dad will put you know future son-in-law through i think that there’s a love and a care protection that he has for especially his girls it can be different for the guys where they’re like okay you’re my boy but this is my little girl yeah and so i can understand i can understand that and also like i said the public stuff it was just a different it was a different place to to have to sort through a relationship and then with the tv show it’s like once you invite them into that then it’s filmed and it’s very public and so you want to talk through all the hard things first which is what that questionnaire in the long term it actually provided some of the the answers that you would kind of want to know before making anything public.

[20:53] Okay so you just mentioned the show if you don’t mind let’s take a step back just for a second because i don’t know if a lot of people know how this started can you share the story of how, your family actually started on tv right i believe it was a documentary that was made about your family first, right? Yes. So it was interesting. My dad was in politics growing up. And so he served two terms in the Arkansas State House. And it was something that he did when we were, it was before the show. So I’m trying to remember, I can’t remember how old I was when he first went into politics, but maybe I was like four or five or something when he first ran for state rep and won and then he served another term after that so with that he he ended up running for u.s senate and lost that race but somebody from the ap happened to be at the voting precinct that day and took a picture of our family we were walking in in our matching bright red dresses they were homemade dresses so great and it was like this crazy guy from Arkansas has all these kids. He ran for us in it and lost. That was the article that the AP put out. And someone from Parents Magazine saw that article. They picked it up and they asked if they could do a Parents Magazine piece about my family. So they came out, took a couple of family photos, wrote an article.

[22:19] And then that was published in Parents Magazine shortly after that. I think my parents have 14 kids at that time with the article. So it must have been a couple of years before that the AP had the photo. So anyhow, it was Discovery Health at the time. They saw that parents magazine article and said, Hey, we would love to do a piece on your family. Can we come do a documentary talking about how you have so many kids and how you operate on a daily basis? So my parents prayed about it and they felt like it was the right thing to do. So they moved forward and given it at this time, we had no TV in home. And I mean, I say at this time, because we had, we had a small tiny TV that we would pull out just for like a presidential speech that came up and we would, you know, pull it out of the closet. It was tiny and we would all gather and watch it.

[23:09] So anyhow, we did not know anything about TV, had no clue. We were really, you know, pretty separated from the outside world in that way. And so whenever they asked about it and they came out and started filming they filmed that first documentary 14 children and pregnant again which aired on discovery health and i just remember when the camera showed up it was so awkward because you they say don’t look at the camera like just look at it when you say your name but then don’t look into the lens and you’re really small and so you’re like okay this is weird where do i look what do i do with my hands one of my siblings even said when they were going down the line of saying their names they said the wrong name they said they were their sibling because they were so nervous so that just shows you it was like the nerves that came with it yeah at such a young age you weren’t sure what to do so that show ended up or that documentary ended up being one of the highest rated shows they’d have it had on the network and so they came back and asked for a couple more documentaries so that was 14 children pregnant again and they had on the road with 16 children they filmed 16 children and moving in when we moved into our big house that we built and then from there they asked my parents if they could do adopt a reality show okay and then they prayed about it said yes and then that was was that 17 kids and counting i don’t even know yes it was it was it started off 17 kids and counting yes there you go because i can’t remember now i don’t actually know what the main title was when it started.

[24:36] But that’s what it was kind of propelled the reality side of things. But I’m curious, Ginger, now granted, I know you were a kid, but when 17 kids and counting debuted, was there a moment where for your family where it’s like, Oh my gosh, our life’s going to change here. Like now people recognize us when we go to the grocery store, when we go out in public, people know my name. Like, was there ever that moment where now our lives are different?

[24:59] For me, there wasn’t. It was just a gradual thing. Okay. And so I think because we didn’t watch TV, we really didn’t have a category in our mind for what that was. That’s true. And also reality TV was not a thing. It was just beginning. And so it was kind of just a trial for even the crew, for the show, the network. They were just trying it out like, what are these reality shows going to end up like? And so no one could fully understand where it would lead and what would take place. With putting your lives fully on camera like that, where they’re at your house

[25:34] three to five days a week filming and they’re following you everywhere. And so I think that that was something that no one really could have understood how much change would happen. I think it wasn’t until you started to realize like, wow, we can’t walk through Walmart without my mom being stopped by 30 people. For one, we lived in a small town. So half of those people went to school with my mom. They would say, oh, Michelle, so good to see you. I went to school with you. But part of it was they knew her then because of the show. They were just reminding her that they went to school with her. And we’d always laugh because we were like, how does she go to school with everyone? She was popular cheerleader in school.

[26:15] But like, really? You went to school with like? All these hundreds of people. And so it was interesting. She just could not make it through the grocery store or amusement parks, anything like that. My parents were just stopped every couple of minutes.

[26:32] All right, Steph, I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously, it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time, you didn’t say the book we wrote called You Met Her Where. But it’s still a really good book. That is true. And it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas. Friends, you can order your copy of our book titled You Met Her Where at KevinAndSteph.com. And we will make sure to personally sign a copy for you or whoever you want. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[27:03] All right, Ginger. So for all of our guests, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished. And please keep me honest. If I’m wrong on any of these, please let me know. And Steph’s not aware of any of these. So you’re going to see her genuine reaction. Now I’m nervous. I don’t think you’re aware of these. I don’t know. I will be shocked if I don’t know these. So I’m very excited to see if I don’t know something about Ginger. All right. So fun fact number one. And she just mentioned this briefly. Being part of a recognizable family on TV came with a few surprises. Okay. Ginger and her sisters as teenagers were constantly getting letters from guys

[27:39] wanting to date them, including love letters from men in prison. So what’s one of the more interesting or craziest fan interactions that you had then when you went on tv yes definitely okay so i think that the interest from guys was one of the things that actually was i don’t want to say it keeps you entertained because it is like just seeing how people go about relationships and with a stranger because they’re strangers to us they see us and feel like they know us. But ultimately, we don’t know these guys, right? So one guy invited one of my sisters to Disneyland. He said he gets them free for his birthday.

[28:25] She’s going to have to pay her away. And then we got like one time, one of them got a box. It was a huge box showed up at the house with one of my sister’s names on it.

[28:37] And inside was another box. And inside was another box. It got down to this tiny box and it went, she opened it and it was like, this is for you. I love you. This is a free sample candle. And that’s what he said from Yankee candle, free sample candle, you know? So you get all kinds of special things, a beauty and the beast snow globe with a name engraved on it. So we had all sorts of things show up and then it would be like one guy drove, he drove 30 plus hours down, had a meal with someone in it with my dad and then left and drove all the way back. Wow. So it was, you know, we had a lot of interesting things happen. It was great. Wow. I’m taking notes here. The best thing was the moms. Let me just say the moms, we love the moms, but the moms were often the ones who would be like, my son really wants to meet you. She’s shoving him up. And we’re like.

[29:37] Let’s have him show a little like actually walk up to us and you not be pushing him in this direction let’s see him drive 30 hours he ages you and i think you both love to play the piano.

[29:49] It’s like oh that’s sweet thank you but let’s let’s hear him say that that’s funny that is funny okay this next fun fact stuff warms my heart okay and you’re gonna understand why here in a second. Okay. Ginger reveals in her new book, People Pleaser, that her extremely sheltered background often makes her feel like she isn’t speaking the same language when it comes to pop culture. Okay. You know where I’m going with this. I do. As a kid, Ginger saw very few movies and listened to very little music other than hymns. So there are times when someone brings up a line from a movie or busts out a lyric from a popular song and it’s a weird moment for her because she’s the only one in the group who doesn’t get it. Yep. All right, Ginger, that happens to me all the time. All the time, Ginger. All the time. Let’s go. Okay. Somebody else will understand. Yes. So the first time I met Steph’s parents, they made fun of me because they were quoting movies that I had never seen before. And so they were looking at me like I had grown up in a- Two heads. Yes. A different planet. Yeah. All right. So since you’ve been married, what’s one of the things that you’ve watched, you’ve listened to, or a movie you’ve seen? and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is really good. Oh, yeah. Okay, so I’ll say I am a big fan of Seinfeld. I love Seinfeld now. But I feel like people would always be quoting it and I just, you know, I don’t know who Jerry Seinfeld is. Who is Jerry Seinfeld? But okay, that’s become one of my favorite shows. So I like it and The Office, things like that. Yes.

[31:18] Those are very quotable shows. The Office in particular, you know, they’re like, oh, remember that scene? I’m like, I have no clue what you’re talking about. So Jeremy… Jeremy has introduced me to a lot of the classics that I just wouldn’t know, but I still will say I’m terrible knowing names of like actresses, you know, an actress somebody will mention or they’ll mention the movie. And I’m like, they’ll say, oh yeah, you know, this actress went on to do all these movies. And I’m like, I don’t know who you’re talking about. And then they show me a picture. I’m like, well, I watched five movies with that person. I don’t know their name. Like, just tell me, just tell me what movie and like, maybe describe the movie. Cause I probably forgot already. And then in songs, the same way, right? Yes. It happens. I’m listening to it, but I don’t know any of the artists’ names. So I’m still very bad with recalling names of my favorite artists. That is so… I didn’t even think about that. Totally made my day when I was researching this. I’m like, yes, I have the same exact experience. You have somebody that can understand you. Yes, 100%. I liked it. 100%. That’s awesome. All right, next fun fact. Ginger and Jeremy just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary. Congratulations, by the way. Yes, congrats, girl. Thank you. They now have the Ginger and Jeremy podcast, which drops new episodes every Wednesday. Okay. So, first off, whose idea was it to do a podcast? And whose idea was it to put your name first? Which I’m actually very impressed with.

[32:40] Yeah. I didn’t even think about that. Because typically when you write a name, it’s like Jeremy and Ginger. Yes. So, that must admit in Jeremy move. because we had a podcast over four years. I guess it was four years ago, we had a podcast that we did and it was great. It was called the Hope We Hold podcast, but we thought, okay, we needed a break. We were still filming the show. There was a lot happening and Jeremy was in full-time seminary. So it was very overwhelming for us to take on any more. And then I was also considering writing the book and all of that. And so our season of life was insane. And then I had a newborn and I was like, okay, this is, this is it. We need a break. So we took a four-year break. And then at this season, we were like, you know what? We should start that podcast back up. It’ll be fun. And maybe we’ll make it more relaxed where it’s conversational. It’s not so structured and invite some fun guests on that. We’ve always wanted to talk to. So that’s what we did. We started back up. So I say Jeremy probably actually playing that Jeremy podcast, because I would have automatically naturally just put his name first. Uh-huh.

[33:50] All right, next fun fact. Together, Jeremy and Ginger live in Los Angeles, California, with their two daughters, Felicity and Evangeline. And she’s pregnant with her third baby. Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. My initial thought when I saw these names, though, Ginger, were you tempted to continue the J theme with your family? I was not tempted. Not at all. No. Like all the J names have been taken, right? They’re all gone. The names are gone. And let me just say with the grandkids, I think that is like, that would have been insane to try to do J’s because I like unique names. But when you get to where they’re just weird names, because you’re so desperate to keep with the theme, that can be an issue. So I love my name because I’ve only met like one other person with Ginger, who’s Ginger with a J.

[34:40] And it’s, I like it. so when i go to like starbucks pickup they’re always like asking for your name and i i will multiple times if i put a mobile order in before i get there i’m like oh yeah you know um they say we need your name and i’m like it’s ginger and i say i have a mobile order and there have been so many times where they can’t find it not find my order and i and then i’m like oh yeah ginger with a j unfortunately like i just threw you off and then they go back and they’re like oh yeah it’s right here. We have your order. We’ll see you at the window. So that happens all the time. So to the point where now I don’t even tell anybody how to spell my name. I just say, it’s Ginger. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I have a question. There’s 19 siblings.

[35:21] Now there’s grandkids involved. Is there a time where someone like names their child Felicity and they’re like, oh, I want to name my kid Felicity. You took it? Yeah. You took it. Is there anything like that? Yes. So that actually has been a problem that we’ve run into because quite a few of us actually keep our kids’ names a secret until they’re born. Okay. That’s smart. And we will like share the gender, but then we keep the baby’s name quiet because otherwise you face the judgment. Like, oh, that’s a weird name. Yeah. But once that baby’s born, that’s the cutest name in the world. So we just kind of like, that’s what quite a few of the siblings have chosen to do. So right before we had our Evie Jo, she’s Evangeline, but she goes by Evie Jo, my sister Joy, she was pregnant six months before me. She was going to give birth. And so we were both pregnant at the same time. And she was like, going to announce the baby’s name.

[36:19] And she said, okay, you know, we’re going to share a baby’s name with you. We’re coming home from the hospital. First, we’re going to share the nickname. It’s Evie. And then she paused and she’s like, May. We’re like okay what is evie who is evie and she said it’s evelyn okay okay we’re like, close okay so we can work with this happened and then we called them immediately we’re like uh okay we’re gonna share the name with you just because we want to make sure it’s okay we have evie joe we really want her to go by evie joe and are you okay with that and they were like totally it’s so cute they’re two different names anyways even if they’re the same then you can do it. So I think that that will happen because we’re already at 30. I don’t even know. I lose count. 35? We have six grandkids or something like that. Oh my. Okay. We still have six kids who are not married. A couple who are married who don’t have kids yet. Okay. So I think it’s only going to, we could be at a hundred grandkids. You could be. You absolutely could be. For sure. Okay. So as a dog or daughter is one of the most popular questions.

[37:22] Hey, how many kids are going to have? Is that like one of the first things people ask you typically? Yes. Is it? I bet. Yeah, I think that’s one of the number one questions we’ve talked by and we had said initially three. And so I’m feeling like that’s actually feels pretty right right now. Um, yeah, we’ll see. Do you know what you’re having? We have a little boy on the way.

[37:42] So we’re excited. I guess we’ll see how, you know, how everything goes, but I’m feeling pretty content with just being done. So we’ll see. Yeah, for sure.

[37:54] If you like what you hear please tell someone about us as soon as this episode is over go tell your spouse your closest friend a parent a co-worker or share one of our posts on social media however if you don’t like what you’re hearing please do not don’t tell anyone don’t tell anybody just disregard this message don’t worry about it about us yeah go on with your merry day and to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes be sure to check us out at kevinandsteph.com. Thank you for listening to tell us a good story. Okay, final fun fact. Ginger is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of, I believe, four books now. Her most recent book titled People Pleaser, Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations, was released on January 15th.

[38:39] So first off, congratulations, Ginger, on the new book. That’s awesome. Can you tell us more about your new book that was just released? Yes. So I just released a book called People Pleaser because I am a people pleaser. That’s something that I’ve struggled with for so many years. And as I was writing my last book, Becoming Free Indeed, it was breaking down the teachings I grew up under. It’s a theological memoir. And I just wanted to expose those teachings as harmful. And it was done in a way out of love in a very respectful way. Hopefully, as I saw before the Lord, just sharing the teachings being the issue.

[39:16] And I wanted to share that message, but it was also very hard. And so as I was writing it, I was realizing, wow, people pleasing just keeps coming up in my mind. And I realized that I am a people pleaser. And so that was the next topic that I was thinking, okay, this would be great to be able to talk about. Because especially now in today’s culture, There’s so much pressure from people to be a certain way, to look a certain way with social media, all of that stuff. And so, and then also just within my own life, I struggled with that because I would tend to lean towards isolation to not let people see how, you know, I was struggling or to try to keep a perfect house, keep a perfect smile on my face all the time, even when I was having a hard day and I needed to ask for prayer. So a lot of those things that I struggled with, I thought, okay, this, this needs to be talked about more because I feel like people pleasing is such a broad topic that is often not discussed.

[40:13] And we have so many who will go from one extreme to the other. So like, for me, it was isolation. I wouldn’t, like I said, to keep myself like, sheltered from anybody’s disapproval or I thought the arguments would equal rejection. And so that was something that I was very afraid of. And then with the people pleaser book, I thought, okay, if I struggle with this, I know that so many others do. And so I want to share some very practical stories about people pleasing throughout this book to help. Have you always had a passion for writing or did you discover it once you were married? I think that once I was married, I realized, okay, so many people have followed the show, but they don’t truly know what I’m all about. What am I passionate about? What truth do I want to share in a deeper way, even scripture, but then also for people to see it as what we’re actually, what the goal and the heart is behind everything that we do, which is to glorify God, hopefully help and encourage people in their struggles every day. And so I think that I wanted to be able to share a deeper message than I ever had been able to before. And books are an amazing way to do that. So that’s why I’ve continued just to write throughout the years.

[41:25] Well, listeners, for more information about Ginger, you can go to her social media pages. It’s on Instagram. It’s at Ginger Volo and at Ginger and Jeremy. With a J. With a J, yes. Their YouTube is at Ginger and Jeremy. And so is their website. And we will put links in the show notes on our website. so you can click on those and go right to them. Also, for their book, you can order People Pleaser, which you can get on Amazon or anywhere else that books are sold.

[41:50] Well, Ginger, thank you so much for saying yes to Steph and I. And you’re absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much and good luck with your book. And with the baby. Yes, and with the baby. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, guys. It’s been fun. Friends, we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this, whether it’s on the Apple Podcasts app, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or one of the other platforms. You guys, it’s completely free. And while you’re there, feel free to give us a rating or a nice review. Thank you for listening, too. Tell us a good story.