Twisted Adventures

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog. I have no excuse for that. It’s not that I haven’t had any adventures to recount; I’ve just been lazy about actually putting fingers to keyboard. So let me fill you in on some new twists.

My life is crammed with God’s provision of items for shoeboxes. I already have more than 5,800 clothing items ready to go—a great start toward my goal of filling 12,000 shoeboxes this year. I have these items stored in several places and am waiting on God’s provision for more space. I feel like the man in the Bible who said he needed to tear down his old barns and build bigger ones. Actually, I would love to have a barn of any size, but you get the idea.

In the midst of the clothing items and the 2,460 bars of soap I got with coupons and the 5,700 tubes of toothpaste, one of my most interesting adventures in recent months was the acquisition of candy canes.

These twisted confections are perfect items for shoebox recipients who long for ‘sweeties’ so I couldn’t wait for the after-Christmas sales to snap them up. After visiting our local Target store daily for two weeks, the magic 90%-off-on-Christmas-items sale arrived.

I had to work that day so my dear husband, a confirmed non-shopper, braved a howling snowstorm to haul a truck full of candy canes out of Target. I went again after I got out of school and filled my minivan as well. I counted 19,422 after cleaning out the store, but that didn’t seem like enough, so I called my daughter, Jen, and asked her to check the Target near her in Cranberry, PA. The dear girl was actually excited when she called me two days later and reported her haul of another 7,128.

My Church Relations Coordinator, Heather, snagged seven cartons of them at Wal-Mart and another nine cartons were donated by the mom of one of our Church Relations Specialists who lives several hours away.

Then my daughter shared the need with her boss and he was thrilled when he went to a Giant Eagle grocery store and picked up 1200 candy canes for only $9.00.

Final tally stands at somewhere around 37,000 candy canes. I know it’s twisted but I’m ecstatic.