Operation Christmas Child

"What's that shoe box doing on the table?" Matt asked when he came home from work.
"That? Operation Christmas Child," I replied.
"What? Are you giving them shoes?" he said.

Nope. Not shoes. That orange shoe box (yes, I left it unwrapped) was full of goodies, destined to a foreign land for a little boy for Christmas.

I was introduced to Operation Christmas Child in 2007. I was in my first year of MOPS and was moved to tears at the little video we was showed. It was amazing how one shoe box, full of things a lot of us would take for granted, totally brightened a child's day. Our group put together a lot of boxes during one of the meetings. It was so much fun. Lots of little toys, boxes of crayons, hair bows and brushes, and hygiene things like soap, washcloths, and toothbrushes went into those boxes.

MOPS has ended for me, but this is one of the things I have continued to do. I think what drew me to OCC is the sheer simplicity of it. It's a shoebox full of simple things, things a lot of us may just toss out (Happy Meal toys) or things we seem to have at our disposal, like soap and a toothbrush. Or a pencil. And it brings these children such joy. Our family participates in "local" giving as well, but this has just has a special place in my heart.

Since I started doing the box at home (I think this is year 3 for us), I've enlisted Logan's help. I let him pick if we should fill the box for a girl or for a boy. This year he picked a boy. We keep the age consistent with his age. Then we shop. This year the shopping was pretty slim as I was fortunate to have enough stuff left from last year and had collected things over the hear. Kids meal toys (unopened) are great and we had a lot of those. Some building things, a ball and cup game, a puzzle. We had some Hot Wheels cars, a notebook, crayons stickers, socks, soap and washcloth, a comb, a small Frisbee, pencils, pencil sharpener, fun shaped erasers. It's fun to find what will fit into a shoe box and over the years I have gotten pretty good at squeezing a lot in.

Ready to pack!

Filled up!

Label printed, ready to go!

I dropped off the box this morning at a neighboring church. This week is national collection week. There was a room off to the side. A long table was FILLED with boxes, and another table was in the process of being filled! Last year and this year we paid our $7 (that's all it takes to ship) online, so we can track our box and see where it goes.