Empty Stocking Fund...

My hubby, Josh is a member of the Gainesville Jaycees, a local community service group. Each year our local Jaycees group hosts a 3 day fall festival called the Mule Camp Springs Market. The proceeds from this event helps to purchase Christmas gifts for hundreds of needy children in our area! Yesterday, our whole family woke up at 5AM to meet the other Gainesville Jaycees members at our local Wal-Mart. Each couple was given 2 children at a time to buy for. We were given a list with the child's name, age and clothing/shoes size. We were allotted $100 per child - and with that money we had to pick out tennis shoes, 2 outfits, under ware, socks, coat, hat, gloves, and $25 worth of toys. Once we had the items for both of the children, we would take them to the designated cash registers. They would ring up the items, put all of that child's items in one bag with the child's info attached and seal the bag up with packing tape. Then we were given 2 more children to buy for - this process continued for 4 hours!!!!! I think our family ended up picking out Christmas gifts for 14 children. I think that is pretty awesome considering all the items we had to pick our for each child... and the fact that we had our 3 kids with us. Some of the other couples that do not have children were able to move faster than us - imagine that!?! But I was really proud of our children! They behaved so well and they were excited to help out... even though it was really, really early in the morning and it took us 4 hours!

Continuing in our lesson of giving....
Last week my mother-in-law took the kids to Target to fill their boxes for Operation Christmas Child. She does this every year with the kids, so I guess we can call it a tradition! The kids take such pride in filling the box, but they have often wondered who receives the box and if the kids like what they picked out.... then I received this news article via email (read below)- now we know for sure that these little boxes mean so much to the children that receive them!

Out of a Russian orphanage and giving back
By AIMÉE BLANCHETTE, Star Tribune
November 18, 2008

Four Twin Cities teenagers who were adopted from a Russian orphanage are hoping other orphans find hope in the same place they did -- in a shoe box.

Nadia McEachern, Kola Schultz, and Klava and Ted Foreman, now students in the Twin Cities who attend NorthRidge Fellowship church in Rogers, recently took part in Operation Christmas Child, which sends 8 million shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 100 countries. Last week, the teens packed shoe boxes with many of the same gifts they recall receiving while at the Porkhov Orphanage in Russia, including dolls, jump ropes, coloring books, candy, toothbrushes and soap. "I think of something that I liked to get," said Klava, who was adopted along with her brother Ted in 2004 by Doug and Becky Foreman of Maple Lake. "Even the smallest, simplest thing like a teddy bear -- they will treasure it forever."

Ted was 9 when he got a shoe box gift filled with Sponge Bob Square Pants toothpaste (which he ate, mistaking it for candy), a coloring book, a flashlight, stuffed animals and a wash cloth (which he thought was the "cutest little towel.") He hopes the soccer ball, gloves, hat and yo-yo he packed in a shoe box this year give a child the same feeling he had nearly 10 years ago. "There is actually something more to this world," said Ted, now 18, recalling his thoughts upon opening his shoe box. "Somebody cares ... That was something that was over my head."

In 2003, several families in the Rogers/Dayton/St. Michael area hosted Russian orphans as part of the Journey of Hope program, an international summer camp program that allows orphans ages 5 to 12 to visit and live with American host families for three to four weeks. Families usually participate because they are interested in adopting, and several families in the NorthRidge Fellowship ended up adopting children. The agency that brought the kids here on the Journey of Hope is the European Children Adoption Services in Plymouth.

Ben and Teri McEachern have participated in Operation Christmas Child since their three biological children were little. When they picked up Nadia, whom they adopted in 2004 from Porkhov Orphanage, located in a small town in western Russia, they happened to be there the same day the children received their Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

"We saw what a huge deal it is to these kids, who don't have anything of their own, and what a huge impact it made on their lives," said Teri. "Now, instead of just trying to find inexpensive gifts, we really try to find a gift that will make an impact." Because of the impact the shoe boxes had on Nadia, she said she'll probably continue to send shoe boxes forever. "I know how it feels to get them and how it feels to not get presents at all."

How to help:
More than 400,000 shoe boxes are expected to be shipped from the Operation Christmas Child warehouse in Bloomington, one of six regional distribution centers around the country. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization working to aid the world's poor and suffering.

This is national collection week, Nov. 17-24. However, shoe box gifts are collected year-round. Donors can drop off wrapped shoe boxes or new items to put into the boxes at one of 20 processing centers in the Twin Cities. For drop-off locations, visit www. samaritanspurse.org
<http://samaritanspurse.org/> .