TWO WEEKS UNTIL OCC COLLECTION BEGINS

It's crazy how fast time flies, between people visiting, snow storms, pitching to 11 different states media outlets, running half marathons, and school work. Today, however, I had a lazy Sunday which allowed me to take a few deep breaths and reminisce on how life in Colorado can be.
The weather here is nuts. As my friend Laura once told me, "If you don't like the weather in Colorado, just wait five minutes." Sure enough, this week (Wednesday and Thursday) it snowed nearly two feet, and by this weekend it was almost all gone minus a few small patches and random snow plowed piles in parking lots. Thursday was a great day though, because I got to experience what it's like to work from home... I gotta say, I love it! Staying in sweat pants literally all day and drinking coffee non-stop was wonderful. Even though I was working it felt like I wasn't. I think this job is teaching me more and more about what I want to do in the future. Now working from home in some way or another is on that list.
Last weekend, my friend Quinn came to visit me and some other friends we both know from Spain and see Colorado! We went up to Boulder and Estes Park, which is beautiful with all the snow and elk during this time of the year. The pictures I posted with this blog post are of us in Rocky Mountain National Park.
I cannot believe there are only two weeks until we begin processing shoe boxes. I think "processing shoe boxes" does not give the process we are about to undertake nearly the credit it deserves. We are about to see, open, sort through, and box up a hundreds of thousands of shoe boxes filled with gifts for children around the world. Well, that is what the thousands of volunteers will be doing. I will be sitting in my office, making thousands of phone calls to media outlets, trying to get them to publish hundreds of articles about our thousands of shoe boxes. My point is, with all of the thousands of volunteers, shoe boxes, media outlets, and hours we spend planning and gearing up for collection week, I am ready to see it happen!
There are two stories in particular that I just cannot wait to pitch to the media. They are both full circle stories, meaning that a child once received a shoe box in another country and now he or she lives in the U.S. and packs shoe boxes for other needy children. These kinds of stories are rare and I feel so blessed to have one in each of my regions.
Vladimir Jensen was born in Kazakhstan and lived in an orphanage there until he was adopted by a family from Oregon. While he did have food and a roof over his head, he had never received a gift. He said, "There were 300 kids in one room with 300 different boxes -- it was amazing! The best part was that each one of us got something different, and we were able to share what was inside our shoe boxes with others. I had never owned something that I could share before I received an Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box."
Vladimir's favorite part about the box was that it was his own -- nobody could take it away from him. He then couldn't wait to share it with others!
Janice Dreiling, a 16 year old from the Philippines who was adopted by a Colorado Springs Family, had a similar experience to Vladimir. Her favorite part about the whole box was the gospel booklet. She read it over and over again and ended up making a decision to follow Christ after the words of the little booklet started to click.
Both of these teenagers have amazing stories of how a simple shoe box impacted their lives. Even as I pitch their life stories to the media, I am brainstorming ways I can make even more boxes for children just like them. Each box reaches another child!
I hope everyone is busy shopping, especially with all of the clearance sales on Halloween candy! Today I bought three gigantic bags of candy for my boxes, for under $5.00! Get a box and start packing!