It's that time of year again - the time when we take the children to choose items to pack in a shoebox and send to a child without. A child who otherwise gets nothing all year long. It's humbling to think of, isn't it?
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse and we've participated for several years - maybe even before we were married. We love getting our children involved and like to challenge ourselves to pack a nice box "from" each of our children. Over the years that's meant rebudgeting, planning ahead, and stretching ourselves to add a box when we add a child.
A couple of weeks ago I took the older 3 kids to Dollar General to get the items we didn't have. I took a picture of them with our bags when we got home. I got a new phone recently...did I do great?
Yep, that's my finger. Good grief!
Natalee was very thoughtful about her box this year. She thought hard about what she likes and packed accordingly.
Her favorite item that she chose was the leopard with the sparkly eyes.
We also included a handmade felt dolly dressing among the other items she sent.
Her plastic tote box we bought was too small so she had to upgrade to a larger cardboard shoe box that we wrapped.
Xavier wants to send his child the whole house - every year. It is hardest for him to whittle things down and make choices.
He did send a soccer ball and pump again this year and he thinks it will make his little recipient very happy. I agree with him. According to everything I've read about the shoebox project, soccer balls are treasured!
Xavier also had to use a large cardboard boot box.
This was the first year Ameliya really understood a little about what we were doing. She really loved that pink art set she chose but she did not throw a fit or whine when it was time to pack it up.
We had to buy her dolly from Dollar Tree, because DG didn't have one that suited us.
Her items were able to fit in the plastic tote we bought and we did the "handkerchief wrap" on the inside to decorate it.
Zayden had no clue what was happening, although he did empty the boxes twice while they sat here.
I like to think of the little truck we sent in his box as a God thing. It was on the shelf at DG, all alone, with no tag. The manager, who knew what we were shopping for, gave it to us for a quarter! Such a nice, sturdy little truck for a quarter!
We also snagged everyone's flip flops except the ones in Natalee's box for a quarter at DG!
For the last month, the kids from our Wednesday night church children's program have been bringing in items to put towards making shoeboxes. This Saturday myself and a team of 3 volunteers got those items out, sorted, and assembled into full shoe boxes. We challenged the kids to bring something different each week - one week hygiene items, then school supplies, then toys, and the last week "other" items like flip flops/shirts/flashlights.
Look at these new shoes someone donated! Won't some little girl be so pleased!!?
This cute little shirt also caught my eye so I snapped it's picture before I filled this box up.
I'm so proud of our JAM clubbers! Well done, kids!
The final piece to our family boxes is a letter from our children and $7 postage per box. Each child, with our help, writes a letter to their recipient, prays for them and then we take the boxes to the church. We dropped ours off yesterday morning! We choose to pay our $7 postage/box online so that we can "follow our boxes" and know where they are delivered.
Our church has stepped out in faith and become an official collection center for OCC this year, which is an undertaking. They will have someone at the church from 5-7 each night this week so that community members can drop off their boxes. So, local friends, a challenge to you...fill a box (you can do it ALL at DG!) and get it to LCC this week!
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