The Boxes

They arrived Sunday night under the cover of darkness!

 

 

All the way from Ireland!

Shpresa carefully counted each case and the number of boxes in each!

Monday morning we attended the Christmas party for grades 1 thru 5 of our local public school where we entered quite the dance party!  It was held at a local restaurant that is primarily used for special events like weddings.

After some introductions and an explanation of why we give gifts at Christmas as well as who the gifts were from, we went about the frantic task of distributing 181 boxes to 181 patiently waiting students.

 

One of my biggest unexpected blessings was the joy I felt watching our kids (and the G-family kids, more about them later) jumping in so enthusiastically, helping us distribute the boxes.

 

 

Check out his losing battle of self-control!

One of 'our' boys.

 

 

Reni was all over moving boxes between Genti in the stairwell and returning the empties...

Our friend 'A' got the coveted box with the "Frozen" giftwrap. ;-)

Taking a break after all that work.

 

One of the students gave a well-spoken 'thank you', though the boxes, of course, were not from us so it felt a little awkward on our parts to be thanked so profusely (see my instagram for a pic of just some of the thank you cards!).

 

If you have ever participated in OCC, know that these kids were SO excited.  While some of them eagerly ripped into their boxes, others were so in awe, they refused to open them until they got home and could share the moment with their families.  Teachers told Genti with tears that some of their students had likely never received a gift before in their lives.  Nathan had the experience of giving a box to someone (a minority) who looked like she expected everyone at her table to get one except her.  And when he gave it to her, she was completely touched and surprised.

 

Thanks for letting us share the joy of this experience with you!