Boy and girl 5-9~

So it's that time of year again...our church foyer is slam packed with shoeboxes for Oper@ation Christm@s Child. It makes me smile to walk past them. We made a couple this year...Syd did one for a girl her age and Joel for his. They both were thrilled to do it.

Actually, Sydney's was part of a birthday party she went to a couple of weeks ago. In lieu of gifts, children bought stuffed shoeboxes. LOVE that. She had a blast filling it and then delivering it to her party. It didn't occur to me at the time to take pictures of her...we were rushing to get it done for the party that had slipped my mind. But we bought for Joel's yesterday and he took great care in the things we chose.

We learned last week that Max Tims had received these OCC shoeboxes while he was in the orphanage in Bangkok. I didn't know this a few Wednesday nights ago when I was watching him while Tara and Veldon were participating in their weekly events at church. I walked Max into our gym and helped him {rather, took pictures of him!} filling a box for a little boy somewhere in the world. We later found out that the kids at his orphanage would be given these boxes from time to time. How wonderful. And how cool to see it come full circle. Now, he was the giver instead of the recipient. Love it. I wonder if Joel ever received one. Will probably never know. But I think it's so cool that Max did.

So we bought a little boy age 5-9 a stuffed Monkey {because "I have monkey too, mama."}, a coloring book, new crayons, toothbrush and paste, a wooden fish to paint, two cans of playdoh, and some candy. Joel tried his best to stuff the box full of goodies. He didn't try to smile naturally for my camera. Going instead, for the fake smile common to five year olds. Oh, and he didn't wipe the ketchup leftover from dinner off of his face before we began. But I guess then, neither did I. :)

We will pray for these little boxes and for the children who receive them. May God be honored and they sense his love for them.