pen pals.

meet hunter.

a 10 year old competitive and sports loving boy who, last halloween, wanted to send all of his halloween candy to someone serving in the military. [i know- i was impressed, too!]
luckily enough, hunter's mom knew someone that is very involved with a program called "operation santa". that someone was connie, who often sent packages to charlie throughout both of his deployments [bless her heart! so sweet.]
sooo, connie then of course suggested that hunter send his candy to charlie!
another bonus? hunter only lives less than an hour from where charlie is from [and basically where we now live] so it was nice of him to want to send packages to a local marine.
the two of them wrote just a couple times within those months of c's last deployment. [thanks to the snaaaail mail!] but it meant a lot to both of them.

since we have finally settled down into a somewhat normal routine here in oregon, we decided to take the quick trip to visit hunter and his family and meet them in real life. [facebook connected us a few months back.]
and ohhhh boy! was hunter excited to meet his marine pen pal!
i could just see in his eyes how much he looks up to charlie. it was precious.
the both of them played video games, baseball, had a nerf war and had time to toss around the football while we visited yesterday. all while i chatted with hunter's mom and sister. :)
we just love their family!
they are the sweetest, and we just feel so lucky to have been connected with them through this whole thing.