Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child

I'm really excited to involve my kiddos Operation Christmas Child this year. I had wanted to last year as well, but I didn't get my act together in time and totally missed the drop off.

All week we've been reading the SP newsletter about the program and stories of children who received shoeboxes whose lives are changed by a few simple gifts. We've also been praying for the little girl and little boy who will receive our shoeboxes. We were inspired to pray for God to help us to know what each child would need as we read about a boy named Kanuti in Africa who took his school supplies to school in a torn plastic bag. When he opened his box, he found a backpack! As well, we read about Rahma, also an African boy, whose clothes were tattered and too small. In his shoebox, he had been given a pair of jeans that fit him perfectly! Kanuti and Rahma are now believers, and no doubt receiving their shoeboxes had an impact on their receiving faith.

So today we took a trip as a family to Target to get all sorts of goodies. N and T-Max were super excited about picking out gifts! And I'm even more excited that SP now has a system where if you make your donation online to cover the shipping, they can track which country your box goes to. How cool is that?

Anyways, I don't even really know who's reading this out there, but if you would consider making a shoebox donation to a child in need somewhere in the world, that would be awesome. Here's a video that tells you more about OCC.

By the way, collection week is Nov. 15-22, and if you live near me, there's a drop off at:

Redland Baptist Church
6922 Muncaster Mill Road
Rockville, MD 20855

Zay's 15 month stats

Zay's our biggest baby yet! And it's not that he's all that chubby, he's just really meaty and solid. Just want to get down his stats and a few of his newest words so I don't forget.

Weight: 26 1/2 lbs 75th percentile
Height: 32 1/2 in 75-90th
Head: 19 in 75-90th

He's by far much more verbal at this age than my older boy. He seems to understand so much of what we say, simple directions, he's able to follow well (throw it away, put it in the sink, give this to so and so), when we tell stories about him or when we say that we think he's cute, he gives a cheesy toothy grin.

Some of his newest words...

"wah-ry" = sorry
The other day he bit his brother on the cheek (T-Max still has a mark!). I was teaching him to say sorry while stroking his brother's face gently. And now when he thinks he's done something wrong, he'll say "wah-ry".

"way, way" = away
He says this after every diaper change or after snacks and meals to either throw away the diaper or put his bowl or cup in the sink. He loves to go to the sink and launch his bowl into the sink (learned from watching the big kids do this when they are done with their food).

"day-doo" = thank you
He loves to feed his snacks to the rest of us, and say "day-doo" while nodding his head fervently several times as he walks away.

He's also in this stage of repeating what we say, so he's definitely experimenting with language, both Korean and English.

So much to capture about this little guy at this age, but too little time. This will have to do for now.