Greenville, SC — Children

This is it, guys.

After an incredible five days with Pendleton Place and a week in Greenville, we're headed home tomorrow. No one knew quite what to expect on our first day there, but we all fell in love with the place. The outpouring of love and caring we've received from the Pendleton staff has been incredible, and we'll miss everyone. To Jed, Brandon, Ms. Ranzella, Ms. Connie, Laurie, the girls, and everyone else who has welcomed us so graciously, this last blog is for you.

Today wasn't quite like the other days we've had at Pendleton. We didn't paint or de-clutter any more of Pendleton's rooms because the girls started their spring break today, and quite frankly, we had pretty much run out of things to paint. But we enjoyed a quiet morning while the girls played mini-golf at the sad (and now closed, actually) golf course downtown.

Since there wasn't too much work to finish in the morning, part of the team decorated the dining room for Claire's birthday. The hats were a particular hit, and Brittany even wore hers all day. Pendleton was amazing and bought a coconut cake for everyone to share. We hope Brandon will enjoy some of the leftovers tomorrow for his birthday! Before we enjoyed some of Ms. Ranzella's Southern feast, Laurie brought some of her own matzoh ball soup to celebrate Passover with the group. Let's be honest, we had no clue Greenville even sold matzoh, so we loved getting a chance to eat some authentic Jewish food and to be Sarah and Bari's passover family for this year. After the soup, we dived straight in to Ms. Ranzella's Southern smorgasbord. We were so grateful she was willing to cook for us. The meatloaf, sweet tea, mac and cheese, and greens were delicious, but most of all, we loved listening to Ms. Ranzella's stories. She's an inspiring woman, and we've loved to learn from her this week. We tried to compliment her on her fantastic cooking, but she shrugged us off, saying she was "just practicing." Her attitude, kindness, and devotion to what she does will definitely stay with us.

Since the girls were on break, we got to spend most of the afternoon with them. We baked and decorated cupcakes, worked on friendship bracelets, and just talked. It's odd to think that we stood in front of a roomful of strangers just a few days ago, because we weren't strangers when we said goodbye. We've loved listening to the girls this past week — they've let us into their lives, and for that, we're thankful. We've learned so much from the girls and the Pendleton Place staff. They inspired us, they challenged us, and they'll stay with us when we return to Missouri.

All we can say at the end of this trip is thank you. Thank you to Mizzou for sponsoring ASB, thank you to ASB for being an incredible org, and thank you to the girls and staff at Pendleton Place for being the best hosts for which we could have asked.

None of us are ready to go back to Missouri tomorrow. We would stay if we could, but since we can't, we're armed with ideas to bring back to Columbia. We already have plans for pinwheel gardens at Mizzou, and we're so excited to share what we've learned this week with others. It was a crazy, amazing week. What we hope to take away from this trip is that we're "just practicing," like Ms. Ranzella. We want to strive to improve — caring more for others and always finding other ways to help. We're inspired by what we've seen in Greenville this week, and we hope other ASB groups have the privilege of coming back to Pendleton Place.

We'd just get down for that.