Day 55-56: Return to Maryland (10/8-10/9)

Goodbye, Massachusetts, its been real. We left the St. Mary’s Rectory at around 9:30am to drop off Jaime and Christina, and arrive at our next host home in time. We headed north into downtown Boston to drop the supes off at 10, then headed south. It was another travel day, which has become a norm at this point. We went through the NYC Burroughs… again. For the third time. Still fascinating, but just alot you know? We ended up in Newark, NJ for the night, where we stayed at the Cravens home. Andrew Cravens was a missionary in 2003-2004, and has hosted numerous teams since with his wife, Karen. Now, they had 6 kids: Ellen (9), Lucy (7), Leah (5), Caleb (3), Phillip (2), and Zelie (9 mo.). With 8 of us at this host home and 3 at the other, we essentially took one kid each and two took the parents for the evening from 7-10:30. My kid was Caleb, a super energetic, adorable kid that loved when I did the Superman with him. The Superman is just holding him by his stomach and chest as he sticks his arms out and i spin around in circles. It was a joy, and I had so much fun doing it for the first time in years. When it was time for bedtime, we all began to read bedtime books. Except for us, we played Thomas the Tank Engine tracks, one of my childhood FAVS!! I had a blast, and so did he! Wish I had more time no doubt. . . The next morning, we left the Cravens household to finish our traveling in Baltimore. It was only a 4-hour drive, leaving some time to do a team activity! Sarah planned for us to spend the afternoon at Fort McHenry, home of the Star Spangled Banner! We first had a picnic lunch, then bought our tickets to tour this historic site of the War of 1812. As someone who absolutely loves American History, I was LIVING!! Everything was so fascinating, especially understanding and playing what happened there historically. Once we were satisfied with our time at the fort, we finished with a light football game. Afterwards, we arrived at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City, MD. We met the youth group leaders who asked us to be there, Julie and Brian, a young couple from around this area, who cooked us stroganoff for dinner. After dinner and team prayer, some high school youth had a bonfire and praise and worship session, which we joined in on, which was a good ol’ time. When the night was over, we drove to our host home. Only, the host mom was asleep. So Sarah and Nels snuck in, and gave us the lowdown on the bedding. Eventually in the midst of us unloading, Lisa the host mom woke up and introduced herself. She said that she would be gone in the morning for a roadtrip, so the house was ours! More freedom than I expected, but its more time with just the team, which I’m always okay with. We’re spending the next 4 days at this parish, which I am so excited about! Cannot wait to see whats in store for us.