Here are Elijah and Benji with the 6 Bentley Bears that we sent out to Operation Give. Thanks to you who “adopted” one of these bears, we know at least 6 children in Iraq or Afghanistan will have a cuddly bear to sleep with each night.
When we first received them, they were all balled up and stuffed in plastic bags. So we took them out of the bags and let them fluff up for awhile before we wrapped them. Having 6 of them laying around, Elijah kept saying he wished he could have one of them. But I had to explain to him what we were doing, and then he kept saying, maybe I’ll get one for Christmas.
Olivia and I made hear
t-shaped cards and tied them on the hand of each of the bears. It had a simple message in it that read: “Wishing you peace, joy and happiness”. Then we wrote the person’s name who adopted the bear and the state they are from. Then we wrapped them, before we packed them in a box to be sent to Operation Give.
These bears actually were sent with extra hugs, because Elijah and Benji gave each one a hug before we wrapped them. Then Benji’s Bentley had to say good-bye to each one of them. While may daughter was wrapping them up, she commented that it felt good to do something good. I think her comment sparked her brother to join us in what we were doing, because he then helped us wrap up the last few.
I really enjoyed doing this, and plan to do it again next year. My kids also had fun wrapping and packing them up. Maybe next year they won’t go as far as Iraq, hopefully they won’t be needed there as much next year. But it does feel good to do something good, especially around the holidays.
