To Be Loved by a Grandmother

Not only do orphans not have parents, but they don’t have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or any family to call their own.  They are alone, isolated and often forgotten.  This is the part of orphan ministry that breaks my heart the most.  Thinking of millions of children lying in cribs 24 hours a day without any interaction or love makes me weep.  I’ve seen them – row after row of children lying there with empty eyes and broken souls.

But, in one orphanage in Bulgaria, a team of grandmothers (Babas) works to make sure that children are noticed, loved, read to, talked to and valued.  These women work for less than $1 per hour to come to the orphanage everyday and love on THEIR children.  Each woman has two children, and she spends two hours of undivided time with each child every day.

This amazing group of women loves these children and provides the attention and one-on-one care  that orphanage staff can’t provide.  This Baba program is precious to me, and I don’t want to see it end because of lack of funding.  For $100 a month, we can pay for one  Baba.  This means two children can receive love and attention everyday for less than most of us spend on coffee each month.  We would love to add more Babas to this program so that every child in the largest special needs orphanage in Bulgaria has a grandmother.

Can you help?  Can we really change the lives of two precious children for only $100 a month?  Yes, we really can!  We would love to have 15-20 more people commit to paying for one Baba each month.  I go to this orphanage every 3 months, and I can’t wait to post pictures of more and more children being loved on by these precious women.  For $100 a month, we won’t change the world, but we will change the world for two special children.  I love that.

To help with the Baba program, you can use the donate button at the top of this blog.  Thank you for caring about children who so desperately need the love of a grandmother. You are my heroes.

Much love, Mary

A New Season

I love the thought of a new year with my precious family.  But, this time of year is also a harsh reminder of the millions of children around the world waiting for a forever family to rescue them out of the poverty and abuse that surrounds most orphans.  I’m not good with New Year resolutions, but I do have a new resolve to love more deeply, travel even further and share the love of God with as many children as possible in 2019.

Thank you for being patient with the weeks of silence on this blog.  Bulgaria went through a scary season because the Bulgarian government was considering a law that would destroy religious freedom and would threaten people I love and serve with.  We laid low and prayed fervently.  Christians around the world united, and the government of Bulgaria responded with a new law that continues to protect religious freedom.  We are praising the Lord!

I’m so excited to travel to Bulgaria in January because my husband, Randy, is going with me!  He is such a huge supporter of our work there, but he has not been able to go with me on my other trips.  We will celebrate our 40th anniversary while in Bulgaria – what a sweet gift!

We have exciting updates from our partners in Bulgaria.  They have been able to rent a beautiful space and have opened the center they have been dreaming of for years.  This center will provide a place for free first-aid care, after-school tutoring, job training  and much more for the poorest people in Sofia.  We are overjoyed that this center is now a reality!

Randy and I will help with the new center and also visit our two main orphanages while in Sofia.  Please pray for our time there to be sweet and productive.  We want to love on as many children as possible.

If you would like to help with the January trip, we are still in need of warm socks (all sizes) and warm gloves for adults and children.  This winter has been bitterly cold in Bulgaria, and many people there live without heat.  If you like to shop, you can mail the items to me before January 3rd, or you can use the donate button on this page, and I will shop for you.

Thank you for loving our family and our ministry.  We are expecting God to do AMAZING things in 2019!

Much love, Mary

Not My Favorite Place

There is an orphanage in Bulgaria that breaks my heart more than any other.  I adore the children who live there, but the despair and ugliness of this building is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.  The building is old and decrepit.   No pictures on the dirty walls. No place to play.  Nothing beautiful to see.  Children shivering at night because they don’t have adequate bedding or heat.

We are on a mission in this place.  In three weeks, our ministry will be buying new bedding (duvets, duvet covers, sheets and pillows) for every child in this place.  We are working to have beautiful pictures of the children on the walls.  Over the next year, we hope to paint the interior and redo the dining area.  Warm blankets will arrive before the next winter. New shoes will be delivered this summer so that the children can go to school.  I want this place transformed in every way.  If you want to help, you can use the donate button at the top of the blog.

PRAY for families to come for these children.   I can’t even imagine growing up without a family in this place.

Much love, Mary

A Tale of Two Orphanages

In three weeks, I will be going back to the land I love.  This will be my seventh trip to Bulgaria to work with orphans in that land.  Over the past two years, my relationships with orphanage directors have deepened and trust has grown.  My ministry partners and I now have access to places we only dreamed of.  We have been able to provide food, clothing, training and medical care to hundreds of orphans.

Over the next two days, I want to share with you two very different orphanages.  Bulgaria has very strict regulations on orphan privacy, so I can’t give orphanage names or show pictures of any of the children.  But, I want you to have a better idea of the needs in this country.

The first orphanage had a horrible past – a bad director, starving children, abuse and neglect.  A new director took over the care of this building 7 years ago, and she has been working tirelessly to help the children in her care.  She and her staff care for more than 100 children with severe special needs.  It took us a while to earn her trust, but we now have a sweet friendship with the director.  Our ministry has provided thousands of dollars of formula and supplements, we pay for a doctor and two therapists to visit the children weekly, we provide any needed medical testing, and we were able to buy them a good used car. This orphanage is two hours from the children’s hospital in Sofia, but they didn’t have any reliable transportation to get the children from the orphanage to the hospital.  Because of your financial gifts to our ministry, they now have a car. Thank you!

 

The director called last week with a large, specific need.  This orphanage hires older women (babas) who work one on one with the children.  These women help dress the children, read to them, take them for walks or stroller rides, and provide the individual attention that children living in orphanages desperately need.  These women work for very little money (less than $120 per month), and their love for the children is precious to see.  The orphanage lost the funding for the Baba Program, and they have asked our ministry to help.  We want to pay the salaries for 10 babas over the next year.  The total monthly cost is $1200 for the 10 women.  If you would like to help, please use the donate button at the top of the page.  Without this program, the children will not get the individual attention that they need.

Please pray for our relationship with this director and orphanage.  It is one of my favorite places on earth.  Tomorrow, I will share about another orphanage that is NOT my favorite place.

If you love the pictures in this post, visit my ministry partners’ photo store.  All of the pictures are taken in Bulgaria, and the money they earn from selling these pictures supports their work with the Roma people.

https://www.thebighouse.photos/

Much love, Mary

 

Beauty and Pain

I fly to Bulgaria again next week – my 6th trip in 15 months.  I’ve never loved a country so much, and I’ve never wept for one as I do for this place. Such indescribable beauty and pain co-exist in this tiny corner of the world.

Bulgaria is the smallest and poorest country in the European Union.  Its population is decreasing because of limited opportunities for employment. Once glorious buildings are crumbling, homeless walk the streets, and orphanages are filled with children whose parents cannot afford to care for them.

Bulgaria has a population of more than 750,000 Roma (gypsies).  The young girl sitting on the ground is only 16, but she has already given birth to 6 children.  In Roma culture, girls as young as 12 go into prostitution to help support their families. These young girls often have many children and can’t provide for them.  They often have no choice but to place their children into orphanages.  The future of these children is bleak, and they are vulnerable to abuse and trafficking.

These children are precious, and we know that God has so much more for them.  Our ministry works with several orphanages. We purchase formula and feeding supplements, provide salaries for medical personnel, and pay for urgent medical testing.  We give warm clothing and blankets. We provide training for orphanage staff members.  We advocate for these children to be adopted.  And, most of all, we love every child.

How can you help?  Pray for these children.  Give financially to provide food and warm clothing.  Come to Bulgaria with us and learn more about the Roma.  Open your hearts to  adoption.  Pray, give and love.

With much love, Mary

 

 

 

 

We Need Your Help

This is Lina.  When this picture was taken, she was 5 and 1/2 years old and weighed only 12 pounds.  She was in an orphanage where abuse and neglect happened every single day.

A new director is now in charge of this orphanage, and she cares deeply for the children.  But poverty in Bulgaria is still affecting the children in this place.  There is NOT enough Bulgarian money to provide adequate care for the almost 100 special needs children who are in this orphanage.

Our ministry just received the exciting news that the Bulgarian court has approved our non-profit NGO status!  This is HUGE because it has given us an open door into this orphanage.  This is THE orphanage I have asked God to give our ministry.  I have prayed for 2 years for THIS place – for THESE children.  The orphanage director wants and needs our help.

We need to raise $17,000 in a very short time.  I will go to this orphanage in October, and I desperately want to be able to provide basic needs for these children.  We need $6,000 to pay the salaries for 5 nannies for one year.  We need $6,000 to provide basic medical care (a doctor and 2 therapists) for these children who all have severe special needs.  We need $3,000 for medical tests for the children (MRI’s and other tests that the government won’t provide).  We need $2,000 to provide nutritional supplements.  The children are underweight and need more food than they are receiving now.

I am also looking for a medical person with a feeding specialist background to go to Bulgaria with me in October or January.  The director is very willing to receive feeding training for herself and the nannies.

Can you help? Can you pray or give?  Every dollar given through our ministry will go through our non-profit in Bulgaria and directly to the nannies and medical personnel.  Every dollar given will directly impact the lives of children who desperately need us.  We need you.

Here is a picture of Lina today.  Isn’t she beautiful?  God’s love heals broken hearts and sets the lonely in families.

With much love, Mary

The Heartbreak of Orphan Ministry

Years of orphan ministry have changed me.  I cry more, I laugh less, and I walk around with a broken heart.  I’ve had an orphaned baby,  who I loved as my own, die in my arms.  I have been in hard, hard places where children are neglected, starved and abused because they don’t have parents to care for them.  I’ve had people tell me that my daughter should have been aborted (instead of adopted) because she might someday be a “drain” on China’s economy.  I have watched people’s eyes glaze over at the staggering number of 150-220 million orphans and fatherless in the world.

In the last 9 months, I have traveled 48,000 miles and hauled more than 1,000 pounds of luggage to a tiny country half a world away.  Bulgaria has my heart, but I leave more broken after every trip.  Orphanages are filled with Roma (Gypsy) children who have NO HOPE unless a family comes for them.  Twelve and thirteen year old girls who will soon be prostitutes unless a mom and dad change this identity through adoption.  Little boys who will be begging on the streets unless a family intervenes.

I’m not writing this for sympathy.  I want you to know that a broken heart is making me more determined to war for children in need of families.  I won’t stop going. I won’t stop telling people that fostering and adoption are the heart of God.  I won’t stop. But I could use more warriors. People who will give and pray.  People who will open their homes to children in need.  People willing to risk a broken heart.

I will choose a broken heart over apathy every single day.  I won’t stop.

With much love, Mary

 

 

When Basics are Luxuries

 

I take so much for granted.  A warm bed, clean clothes, a toothbrush and shampoo – these are things that many children went without today.  For millions of orphans around the world, life is brutally hard without the love and protection of a family.

I will be leaving again for Bulgaria in July, and our team will be able to serve more children than ever before.  We want to take socks, underwear, pajamas, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap and shampoo for more than 100 children.  Can you help?

Our ministry has an Amazon registry with many of the items that these children need. The items you purchase will be mailed to me, and our team will hand out every single thing to children in Bulgaria.  We will also buy new shoes for as many children as possible.  If you would like to make a donation for shoes, please use the “donate” button on this blog.

The link to our Amazon registry is: https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/mary-strickland-july-2017-canyon/2XZMTZD0E6CV5

Thank you for loving children half a world away.  These children are precious, and they need to know that they are loved.

Much love,  Mary

 

A Beautiful Gift

 

My friend, Karyn, made these beautiful dresses for orphans around the world.  Some will go to Nicaragua, some to Africa and the rest to Bulgaria.  If you are interested in sewing, knitting or crocheting for children, there are several easy patterns listed on the sidebar of this blog.

Thank you Karyn!  Your work will bless little ones who have nothing.  Children living in orphanages and in garbage dumps will receive something absolutely beautiful.

Do you want to help, but you don’t have time to make something?  Tomorrow, I will have a link for an Amazon registry  that contains items desperately needed for my upcoming trip to Bulgaria.  We will be visiting many orphanages and orphans on this trip.  I am wanting to take socks, underwear and other basic needs.  We will try to also buy every child a new pair of shoes.  If you want to help with shoes, you can make a donation through the “donate” button on this page.  Thank you friends!  We CAN make a difference for children living in horrible situations.

Love, Mary

It Takes an Army and a Precious Family

I leave for Bulgaria tomorrow morning. This will be my third trip in 6 months, and I believe God is going to do something amazing on this trip!  Because of an army of sweet people in Bulgaria who love orphans, I will be able to visit several orphanages on this trip and meet with new orphanage directors.  We know God has beautiful plans for Bulgaria and the children there.

I am able to go only because I have an army.  An army of friends and family who support our work, love us dearly and work tirelessly to help me do what I love.  I could NOT go without them.

They make these…

And these…

And these beautiful dresses…

They order all of this for me to take to babies half a world away…

Then I have my precious Mason, Molly and Madelyn who till my new garden, do home school on their own, watch their little sister, clean the house and cook the meals when I am away.  They are amazing!

Then there is the army of people who come to my home when I’m in Bulgaria.  They help care for Maci, bring meals, check on my children and love my family extravagantly.

Then there is this man.  The one who packs my bags, checks my flight itinerary, prays for me and supports all of the work that we do.  Randy is truly a man with a servant heart unlike any other person I know.  I’m so, so thankful for this guy!

And last, but never least, is my beautiful family.  My children and grandchildren who are my joy.  They love the Lord, and they love me well.

So it takes an army for me to do what I love.  They work, pray and sacrifice so that I can be with children on the other side of the world who desperately need families.  Thank you army.  Thank you family.  Words will never be enough to express my love for you.