Days 119-122: Returning to St. Paul (12/11-12/14/20)

Only one more full week left of the first half! We have one more evening here with the Ellis family before beginning our journey back to St. Paul, then eventually back home for Christmas break. On our last day, we went to mass and adoration at St. Mary's parish, and got some gas station goodies at the famous Turkey Hill gas station (it's been a week since we traveled, we were craving some slurpees). When we returned home, we got on a call with Christina, our supervisor, checking in about December Retreat and what the second half will look like. Turns out, we will be returning down south next half, and may even return to Naples, Florida for ministry, which I'm most excited about. From there, we just spent time with the Ellis family. Sam has 6 other siblings, 5 of them at home, ranging from ages 11-25 years old. Furthermore, Sam's parents are just simply the best, as they took such great care of us this week. Now, it truly does feel like a second home in Lancaster, especially for me since this is my fourth time at the house now. Hopefully we are back here for Easter, that would be great. . . Our journey back to St. Paul includes two stops in Steubenville, Ohio, and Granger, IN, just north of South Bend. In Ohio, we stayed the night again with the Nelson and Zeleski family, whom we stayed with on Election Night on our way in between West Virginia and Missouri. It was awesome getting to see them again, especially after traveling through so many states since we've last seen them. I did not remember everybody, unfortunately, but there were so many people between the two families, I can't blame myself. . . In Indiana, we stayed with the Towers family. The parents are NET Alum from the 90's, and they have six wonderful kids. We will be staying with them for two nights. What I loved about their house was the amount of Catholic art they owned, including the stuff our host mom made! She creates little saint peg dolls, and sells them on Etsy. We were able to buy some dolls from her, and for a discount too! Go buy her dolls on Etsy at "Grand Expression", she is great at what she does. . . Today is Elizabeth's birthday! (December 14th) She is turning 23, and thank goodness we are not spending the day traveling. But, we did have some plans in mind. Grace and I learned that NET Team 7 is in St. Joseph, Michigan, just 45 minutes north of where we were. So, we got ahold of their Team Leaders, Sophie and Andrew, and planned a get together! We met them there, and we kept it a pretty good surprise between our two teams. We did team prayer together, and stood outside in the cold Michigan winter hanging out. We were going to see them tomorrow in St. Paul, but it was nice spending extra time with them. Upon our return home, we began baking cupcakes in honor of Elizabeth, who has wanted to bake with us for awhile. I'm pretty sure they were red velvet, cheesecake-filled cupcakes, which turned out incredible. The rest of the evening was spent chilling with the host fam, which was great. Elizabeth, if you ever read this, I appreciate you so much sista! You have grown so much during the past few months, and I love watching you work this year. I'm super grateful you are on my team, and I hope you have an incredible 23rd year. Love you long time!