Receiving and Giving

About a month ago, I was talking with the kids about filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. (If you don't know about this program you can read more HERE.) Irina saw the logo and a picture of a box and instantly announced that she had received an OCC shoebox at the orphanage in Ukraine the Christmas before we hosted her!! Before I had even described what we would be doing, she told me in detail what she had received in her shoebox and how happy she was to receive it. I was stunned and so excited! 

Over the last month, the kids and I have been gathering and collecting items for our shoe boxes. This has probably been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding activities over the last month. 

When I learned that there was a way to label the boxes to go to Ukraine, 

my excitement grew. Learn more HERE. 

 We have been praying and praying for the FOUR kids who will receive our boxes. 

Irina is praying her box will go to someone at her orphanage. She knows exactly who 

she wants it to go to. That is highly unlikely, but we will ask God for big things and 

trusts that He knows the special girl who will receive her carefully selected items. 

This is especially close to my heart as I received an email last week from our friends in 

Eastern Ukraine. Two of their three family members were able to escape the horror 

and relocate to Kiev. Here is an excerpt from their email: 

Thank you for your support and your prayers...it's really super important for us at the moment... All is going on here is just non-stop nightmare, during last 6 months every minute we thought that somebody has to stop this..No...it's still horrible..They bomb Gorlovka every day and it's indescribable what life there looks like... It's very dangerous to travel to our city at the moment, never know what can happen on the way.. And nothing is working in Gorlovka- banks are closed, mail services don't work, no police,people with weapon everywhere...scary..

We think about you very often and still can't belive that a year ago nobody could expected that such tragedy would happen with our country, especially Eastern part of Ukraine..very sad..

If you are looking for a way to tangibly help with the crisis in Ukraine,  

I learned of a way through this missionary. You can read more HERE. 

Here they are delivering our boxes to the drop off location. Can you believe 

it was one year ago today that 5 of us flew to Ukraine to get our sweet daughter?