Packing Our Box for Operation Christmas Child

Tonight Shaylee and I went shopping for goodies to pack in our shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse which is a nonprofit Christian relief and evangelism organization. With Operation Christmas Child, you decide if you would like to pack a box for a boy or a girl and then choose which age group to purchase gifts for (2-4 years, 5-9 years, or 10-14 years). We decided to shop for a girl between the ages of 5-9. Some of the gift suggestions included school supplies, toys, hygiene items, and other items such as hard candy and lollipops, socks, tee-shirts, ball caps, sunglasses, etc. They also encourage you to write a note and include a photo.




Our box for our little girl was based around Hello Kitty and the color pink. Our box included:

• two bars of soap
• a pink washcloth
• a pink hairbrush
• Hello Kitty ponytail holders
• a purple toothbrush and a tube of children's toothpaste
• Hello Kitty necklace and ring set
• Hello Kitty spiral notebook and journal
• Hello Kitty markers, pencils, pens, crayons, and mini highlighters
• Hello Kitty color and activity book
• Hello Kitty socks
• Hello Kitty playing cards
• a wooden tic-tac-toe game
• a jump rope
• a copy of the Holy Bible (KJV)
• a note and family photo

I am very excited to be a part of Operation Christmas Child and am happy to get to share the experience with Shaylee. I see this easily becoming a family tradition. It was a bit hard in the beginning to explain to Shaylee why we were buying things for someone we didn't know and even harder to explain why we were not buying these things for her, but in the end, when asked who we buying these gifts for and why, Shaylee proudly stated they were for "a little girl who's parents doesn't have any monies". We had explained to her that some mommies and daddies do not have a lot of money to buy things and can't buy their kids presents for Christmas so we buy them presents because every boy and girl deserves to have a Merry Christmas. As she gets older we will be able to better explain that the real meaning of Christmas isn't about getting presents and not even so much about giving presents as it is a celebration of Jesus' birth, but for now, our explanation seems very age appropriate. Shaylee was quite proud to pack the box of goodies this evening.



I felt so proud as a mother to get to share this opportunity of sharing and giving with her. Tonight, as we prepare to lay down in our comfortable beds in our AC home with full tummies, we will pray that which ever little girl out there that gets our box will have light up with happiness and that her heart will be opened to God's love and that He will meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.