Operation Fill a Shoebox

I've been filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child since before Joe and I were married. Samaritan's Purse does a great job of distributing shoeboxes to needy children around the globe at Christmastime, all in the name of Jesus. While I've been filling these shoeboxes for many years, this year was extra fun because it was the first year the girls were big enough to help me.

We filled three boxes (one for each girl) and Xandra and Theia had the best time sorting out the items for the boxes and then putting each thing I gave them into their box. Since one of Theia's favorite pastimes is filling boxes and bags will small objects and carrying them around the house, she was a little (okay, a lot) disturbed once the boxes were filled that I no longer let her play with the box or fun things inside.

Liyah even crawled over and got in on the action after awhile. She was mostly hampering rather than helping our progress and Joe rescued her (or rather us).

See the CVS bags in the pictures? It warms my heart! We used many of the free and cheap items I have been collecting this summer and fall from CVS and Rite Aid to fill the boxes with good hygiene and toiletry items, all for just pennies. It makes me feel good when my money-saving work allows our family to be extra generous to others.

After the boxes were packed, Xandra and Theia colored some pictures to go in the boxes with a little bit of information about our family. We dropped them off at a local Chick-fil-A who then delivered them to a drop off point in the area. As a bonus, we got a free chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A for donating the boxes.

The girls also helped me pick out a teddy bear and dolly with accessories at Target last week to wrap up for Angel Tree. Again, Theia was quite disturbed that she wasn't to keep the bear, but Xandra understands and she gets very excited at buying and wrapping gifts for our "angel friends." As our kids grow, I hope they will always have fond memories of the joy it is to give to those who have less.