For years now I have read on so many blogs about an organization.....Operation Christmas Child.....where you fill a shoebox of goodies for a child on the other side of the world for the holidays I have always thought "I would love to do that" but either missed the week in November to participate or just never pulled it together. This year I wanted to make a point to participate, the kids are at the age where I want them to know the Christmas season is about more than just getting....its also for giving. So when I saw when the week to drop off your shoe boxes was in Nov I went into full Operation Christmas Child mode!!!!
I then had a brilliant idea.....why not have the kids use their money they got for Halloween to buy some goodies for this little shoe box. So one night we talked to them, gathered the money, and headed to the dollar store.......
They had a super fun time gathering things for a child (boy we picked) ages 2-4. Our basket and shoe box didn't take long to be filled all up.
Next we went on line to find a church nearby to drop this special box off at. We found one, alittle bit of a drive away and loaded up after the parade in town for this adventure. We were all excited to drop off the box!!!!! Unfortunately Jaelah fell asleep on the way there and was in no mood to go in to deliver the box when we pulled into the parking lot.....so Jae-min had to do the deed.
The people there were so kind to us and even ran this sign out for me to take this picture!!!! They showed Jae-min pictures of kids in Africa receiving the boxes, opening them, and their joyous faces. Our boy was so excited to see all this, to see all the boxes piled high, and to feel a sense of belonging in something way bigger than us. We also saw pictures of people on elephants delivering a big box of boxes to remote places in the world. How cool is that??????
To think this little shoe box will eventually make it into the hands of a little boy on the other side of the world blows me away. This is definately a new family tradition for us. It was pretty cool!!!!!!
