Aaron & Isaac

Sending Toys to Iraq

We recently heard about an opportunity to send used toys to children in Iraq. I approached the twins about this with a bit of hesitation. Would they want to part with their beloved toys? I said, "There are boys and girls who don't have any toys. Isn't that sad? We have so many, maybe we can make them happy by giving them some of ours!"

They really proved me wrong, and this turned into a wonderful lesson on giving and geography.

They immediately started going through their toy boxes and happily offered up stuff to give away. I had to put the kibosh on a bunch of stuff that wouldn't ship well or had sentimental value, but had I let them, they probably would have given away everything but the Thomas trains! We ended up with plush animals, two sneaky snakes, a handful of hot wheel cars, and a drawing from each boy.

The twins wanted to know where the toys were going, so I showed them Iraq on the map. I pointed out how it's far away from Seattle, but pretty close to Israel, two places they already know.

I told them I was going to take the package to the Post Office, but the twins thought I was going to take the toys all the way to Iraq, and they wanted to come.

"Are we going to drive the toys to the children?", one asked.
"No, the mailman will do that for us tomorrow"
"I want to drive them tomorrow!"
"It's very far to drive, the mailman will have to take an airplane"
"I want to go on the airplane!"

I explained that it's too far for us to go, and these children live in a place that has a lot of bad guys. I compromised by telling them we can go when they're "this many", holding up 5 fingers.

They seemed somewhat disappointed, but OK with this deal. Hopefully, they won't hold me to that in two years...

[a related story from another family who sent toys]

Posted by joe at October 6, 2006 12:25 PM