Operation Christmas Child

You guys! It's time to pack shoeboxes!

Ahem, let me back up a little. 

Operation Christmas Child is a program by Samaritan's Purse. People fill shoeboxes for kids and then Samaritan delivers them to children around the world, as well as sharing the gospel with each child. 

I used to pack a shoe box every year for Bible Club when I was little. It was like, the highlight of my year. Then we moved away from that church and I got too old for Bible Club, and shoeboxes went by the wayside. 

But now I'm a fairly strong mildly independent woman and I can pack a shoebox without Bible Club. 

This week is the big collection week. They collect all year round, but this week churches all over open up as donation centers and this batch of boxes will go out for Christmas. 

So I got Jarod on board with it and we went to the store. Henry was a big help, eating the tags off things and testing out all the items to be sure they worked. I drew the line at the toothbrush. If he'd had his way, there'd be no wrapping paper left. 

I'll admit, my eyes were bigger than my shoebox there were just so many cute things! We decided to pack our box for a little girl, age 5-9. 

We had hair accessories, a baby doll, pencils, crayons, notebooks. There was lip balm, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, pencil sharpeners, bracelets and an adorable pink purse. I found this kitty stocking hatnwith gloves that had to go, and some fun colorful socks....

Like I said, my eyes were definitely bigger than the box. 

But, in the words of Rerun Vanpelt, "make em fit. If they don't fit, we make em fit."

I'm hoping the workers at Samaritan share that same vision. I repacked that box three times and got it taped up, only to find I had left out the toy baby owl and our note with pictures. 

Of course I cut the box open and repacked again. That owl had to fit in there. It was adorable. 

And you know what? We succeeded. We've got a tracking number on ou package, so we'll get to find out what country it goes to! I'm literally so excited right now, I can't even wait.