Simple Service- Dolls of Hope

 (each month we find a way to serve

and then I blog about it for 

the awesome non profit 

Little Hands Can.)

This month for our service project I searched once again on my new favorite site, justserve.org. I found a beautiful organization called Dolls of Hope, who donates handmade dolls and teddy bears to refugee children around the world, and is currently sending them to Greece to refugee camps there. So I contacted them, got the patterns and then... I needed help because I do not really sew. haha Thankfully I have some wonderful people in our family of talented sewers. This time Buck's aunt came to the rescue! 

We made a girls' night out of it. First we talked about refugees and why we should do anything we can to help them. Aunt Susie had the patterns and fabric ready and the girls got to pin, trace, and cut the bears and dolls out. Then Susie sewed them up and the girls got to turn them right side out and help stuff them full.

 They loved hugging each one to "test them out" and make sure they were squishy enough. 

 "This one is perfect for the children!"

June dutifully worked on making face templates for each bear.

Some of the nearly finished results.

And I think that maybe this is all paying off, not just for the recipients of these different service projects, but for my crazy kids too. Today they came out of their room with a cart full of toys, play food and eyes filled with determination. I nervously interrogated, "What are you doing with all of that?!" to which I got the reply, "Mom, we're pretending that we're going to give things to homeless people that need it."

Every little thing we can do to help another person is actually no little thing at all. Little bears and little dolls come packed with lots of love and a whole lot of hope.