88/101 -- Fill an "Operation Christmas Child" Box

If you are not familiar with Operation Christmas Child, go check out THIS link. It will probably make you cry. Just warning you.

To sum it up, an organization called Samaritan's Purse has this program called "Operation Christmas Child", where folks just like you and me fill regular sized shoe boxes up will all sorts of goodies for kids in third world countries. They have 3 age ranges and you can pick which age range you want to fill your box for, and also if you would rather shop for a girl or boy. These boxes get collected at collection sites and then sent to warehouses for inspection. From there they get passed on to kids around the globe so they will have the blessings of Christmas. They even have an "EZgive" now, where you can print your labels from home, pay your shipping donation of $7 online, and you can track your box! You will get an email letting you know what country your box ends up and give you information about the children in that country.

It's such a touching program, and I encourage anyone who is able to send a box! We are so blessed and there are so many children around the world who don't have the things we take for granted every day; like toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, washcloths, pencils and markers, candy, toys, and paper to draw on.

I belong to a wonderful mom's group called MOPS and we filled boxes for Operation Christmas Child at this weeks meeting. When I found out we were going to be doing this there, I told my family about it and we all agreed to do one as a family as well. My MOPS table ended up filling 3 boxes instead of just the 2 we planned on due to overflow of goodies. It was really awesome. I couldn't wait to sit down with my kids and do it at home.

My 7 year old was really excited to do this and she picked to send a box to a girl her age (age 5-9) and carefully chose each item to go in the shoebox. It was really cool. This is what we stuffed in it:

• a Barbie Doll (who we had to take out of the box due to space issues)
• drawing pad
• markers
• crayons
• glue sticks
• pencils
  
• fun erasers
• pencil sharpener
• fun bear shaped note pad
• modeling clay craft
• toothbrushes
• toothpaste
• bar soap
• washcloths
• hard candy, gum, mentos

We had to re-pack it a few times to make it all fit (and we'll have to replace the toothpaste we got with a smaller package) but we did it! A new family tradition.

Our first family Operation Christmas Child Box