With Love From Washington

I wanted to share our experience with Operation Desert Blossom and hopefully encourage other people to share theirs as well. It was an amazing experience for us. I have the wonderful opportunity of working with the 8-9 year old girls in my church. Twice a month we get together and do various activities ranging from crafts and cooking, to games and learning life skills. When I approached the girls about doing a service project to benefit some children in Afghanistan the girls were very excited to get involved!

I sent out an email to a few friends and the girls' families. We focused on collecting small scale items: crayons, pencils, stickers, small stuffed animals etc. Some of the girls did extra chores to earn money to buy some items, but a lot of the items donated were extra things the girls simply had at their homes. One little brother of the girls said to his mom as they were going through their toys, "It makes me feel good to give some of my special things to kids who need special things".

Wow, did these little girls pull through! I was hoping that we'd get enough stuff to send 3 or 4 boxes to Matt and the children. I was truly touched by everyone's generosity when we ended up with 9 very stuffed boxes. The support we got was inspiring. For the girls, the highlight of the event was making a sign for the troops. It says, "With Love From Washington". They worked so hard on it, and were so proud of it. They were absolutely delighted to see their sign being held by some of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan.

My general feeling is that people want to help. They want to give. They want our troops to know we care about them. People just need an avenue to do this.

So thank you Matt for organizing this. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to think about others' needs and help in whatever small ways we can. And kudos to these adorable girls for doing such an amazing job!

Becky