Operation Christmas Child

Today we had the extreme privilege of sending a gift to two impoverished girls, somewhere in the 2-4 age range through the incredible ministry of Operation Christmas Child. 

I get chills just thinking about those two girls, who they might be, if they'll like our gifts for them, if they'll understand the TRUE gift that we're sharing with them, etc.

Our day started bright and early with a trip to Target (one of Cutie Face's favorites--in her words: "dey have dolls dere. i like dolls. i like dere dolls a LOT").

using her new "holding on" skills

We shopped in the dollar section and in the toy section. Cutie Face had lots of input and seemed to understand that these gifts were just that--not to be kept but to be given away.

We swung by our house, picked up Cutie Cakes (who had been taking a cat nap with J) and walked over to church with our bags of goodies and our two shoe boxes.

The kids had a little chat about what the game plan would be--they were so excited they could hardly sit still!

Cutie Cakes tried her hardest, though, and set an example for her older sister!

After the 2-minute instruction (which i'm sure felt like eternity when the words "cookies", "frosting", and "hot chocolate" were mentioned), the kids ran to the cookie decorating station.

this was Cutie Face's first year ever to decorate cookies 

(as 15-months is, in my book, too young to decorate!)

she was very proud of her sprinkles

after everyone earned their sugar rush, they settled in (ha!) for a brief movie about the whys and hows of Operation Christmas Child. It was really neat and very moving to see the impact these shoeboxes of goodies have on each and every child. 

Finally it was shoe-packing time! Even Cutie Cakes got in on the action

Cutie Face was very pleased with her packing skills

Even Cutie Cakes was amazed (whoa!)

it was a packing,

stuffing

wrapping,

and extremely joyful

extravaganza!

 

I pray these boxes are blessings and beacons of light 

in an often bleak world for their recipients!