From Jersey to Jerusalem- Bears Build Bridges

You never know why you have met someone who you might never see again. You never know why one toy can be a reject with a child and become a treasure for another child. So this is the story of Dona* (not her real name) and how Sarah and I came to know her and give her group
home, bears. 
Sarah was busily helping me squash a few more bears into a duffel. We were about to drive to Newark to get on our El Al plane, heading for Ben Gurion. Sarah, age 12, was about to celebrate her early bat mitzvah, bear mission, trip in Israel, helping me distribute more toys than any of us could ever imagine. We had 9 duffles between Shira, her older sister, then 16, Sarah, and me. How would we get 9 duffles of toys, safely delivered to Israel? That was well over 1000 toys.  Would they all make it over and in decent shape? 
The duffels survived the trip better than we felt. We were off and running as the plane landed on the tarmack.
We were wondering what it would be like to rent a car and drive up to Emunah Afula to meet the new house residents living there? We had a duffel of toys just for them. We wondered if any of the children spoke any English. Otherwise, I would do a great deal of translating for my daughters, I thought!
The first one to meet and greet us was Dona, when we arrived. What a smile. She was the appointed one to take us on tour of the colorful campus, brightly painted buildings everywhere. I felt
like I had stepped into an
ice cream stand, the
colors were so warm and brilliant. 
Dona didn't seem to care which teddy bear that we gave her but she did tell us that the director collected all kinds of cows. 
We desperately searched for a stuffed cow to give to him. We were at a loss what to give Dona though. We looked for a heart shaped stuffed toy. She had shared her heart with us. 
After our tour, we wondered if we would ever see her again. 
We forgot about our adventure with Dona. One day, the director emailed me and told me that he was coming to CT. I invited him to speak at our Hebrew school so that the students could learn first hand how our toys impact on the lives of the children there. He also added that Dona would be coming with him. I was surprised to say the least. It was years later since we had  last seen her. I wondered if she would remember us and what
we were collecting. I felt a bit hesitant to re-acquaint with her. Her smile
disarmed me. She did remember our project. She then smiled coyly and said, " I even brought with me the stuffed heart that you had given me so many years back!" I was startled. She had definitely remembered what we had done for her and the other children living in the home. She had given us such a warm feeling of appreciation for our efforts. She had remembered our gesture of sharing and kindness, from Jersey towards Jerusalem, and beyond, bearing bears galore to be given out to any child who would accept them from us.