We participated in Samaritan's Purse's annual Operation Christmas Child this year. Warren and I have packed a couple of shoe boxes during our years together, but this is the first year that we have done it with the girls. And, it's one that I plan on continuing for as long as we can.
Warren and I oftentimes find ourselves looking around and talking about what our girls have/don't have. We often think that they don't 'have' a lot. I mean, they have tons of clothes, and several toys, things to occupy their time, but all of this seems kinda small compared to what we had growing up. As a mom, I want more and better for my own kids, and I am sure that I am not alone in that, or at least I hope I'm not.
Anyway, before we began with our shoeboxes, the girls were really going through a very 'ungrateful' spell. No utterances of 'thank you' or 'please' or 'no sir/yes ma'am.' To say that Warren and I were both angry and disappointed is an understatement. That's when we decided that the girls may have too much after all. I mean, I know my kids aren't and will NEVER be perfect, and I have made and will continue to make gargantuan mistakes when it comes to raising them, but one thing I cannot allow is ungrateful, impolite children.
So the Christmas child donations came about at just the right time for this family. The church we've been visiting had stacks and stacks and stacks of boxes outside the sanctuary, and I made sure to grab three after service one Sunday. I had originally thought about only doing one, but I wanted my girls to gain a lesson from it, so three it was!
The following Sunday afternoon, after church, lunch and naps, we headed out shopping for items for our boxes. The girls were really intent on what they wanted for their boxes. Naturally, we chose the 5-9 year girl 'option' obviously because what in the world do we know about boys! :) Each of our girls got a coloring book and crayons, stickers, notepads, a Disney princess bathcloth, a tiara, brushes, clips, rubber bands....I could go on and on. But I do have to share sweet Anna's comment. We purchased pencils for our girls, but the store we were in did not have any manual pencil sharpeners. I told the girls we would find one before sending our boxes off. Sweet baby came home and held up our pencil sharpener and said, "Mommy, we can sharpen the pencils here and then send it to them." She didn't make the connection that they would eventually need to be sharpened again once they were out of our hands, but I think Anna wanted everything perfect for her girl.
And Maggie's sweetness too...when I was explaining that our boxes would go to children who are not as blessed as they are, I mentioned that some of those boys and girls don't even have clean, healthy water to drink. Sweet Mags wanted to send them some water! Bless her!
OCC has a new feature this year that when you make your donation online, you can follow where your box(es) go. I, of course, jumped on this and cannot wait to see where our boxes are bound for!
Pictures below...
empty boxes ready to be packed....I think the girls were kinda excited!
careful concentration is required when packing our shoeboxes
Reese and Mags hard at work
Anna, the more meticulous one, was focused on getting all of her items to fit!
My cup runneth over!
