Contrary to the evidence–a wardrobe of old tee shirts, jeans and fraying converse sneakers–I do love shopping.   I love shoes and handbags best.  I am a stay-at-home mom forever shopping for the perfect pair of pumps.  Just in case.

I also love a good cause.  I am bursting with love for this cause:  providing abandoned children in Bulgarian institutions a measure of the happiness, dignity and affection that should fill every childhood.

My friend Melora Johnson is the part of the brains, beauty and heart behind this wonderful organization.  She and her super talented, super generous friends have designed and brought to market extraordinary leather handbags.  One hundred percent of the net proceeds goes to funding and expanding a remarkable program for these forgotten children.  That is 100% benefiting children in the most dire of circumstances.  Forgive my badgering.  These are innocent, lovely babies.  The Baba program funds a “grandmother” visiting each child for hours a week, bringing love in the form of holding, playing, diapering and feeding.  I can’t write this post without crying.

The Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children’s Trust finds local elderly women in the community and matches them to a child within the institution.  They come for 2 hours per day five days per week and during that time the child becomes a human being.  They are touched and washed and fed and clothed.  They are spoken to and sung to and held and rocked and taken outside.  For 2 hours per day they mean something to someone- they become someone’s child.

Please visit Helping Handbags online.  Please support them.  You will have gorgeous handbags (my second one is on its way!) and all of your hard-earned money will directly make the life of at least one child more tolerable.

The story of this organization is beautiful and heartbreaking and will change your life. Its impact on children is exquisite.  I often feel overwhelmed by news stories of suffering. It seems so difficult to help.  This is different.  Go shopping.  Save the world.

This bag rocks.