Well, husband and I decided that $90 on shipping alone (not to mention the $30 we spent on the stuff to SEND) was too much to spend on this mission alone. If I did that, this "year of missions" would cost over $5000 and we certainly do not have that kind of extra money laying around at this stage of life. Not that we wouldn't spend that kind of money on some missions, but we just made an executive decision that it was too much to spend on this particular one.
So, I was thinking back to the things that I most appreciate in a care package when I receive them from my mom. And, the thing that I love most are the pictures of my little brothers and her words of what is happening in their life right now. I know that in the day and age of skype and email–we all have easy access to each other–however, there is something precious about tangible memories of photographs and the handwritten word.
Therefore, I've decided to ship their "must haves" in the VHS sized box and then include lots of current pictures from our life and a handwritten letter about what we've been learning as a family and what we've been up to. I think this is definitely still in line with my hopes for this mission, which was to extend some tangible love to our faraway friends. So, its off the the post office for me…with my two cute little VHS sized boxes in hand.
I am learning so much about what I value in each of these missions–it is kind of unreal to think about. If I continue to learn this much about the logistics alone of these missions (post office costs, hours of different misssions, supplies for projects, etc.) and then my gut reaction to them, as well, then I'll have learned so much more over the course of this year than if I had just lived willy-nilly. :)