Cookies For Africa

Hey there, I’m Becky!  Thanks for visiting Cookies For Africa and thanks for your curiosity about my story.

Here’s my little family of four.

As you can see, our children avoid eye contact with the camera.

After 3 pregnancies, two long bedrests, and a couple of months in the NICU, my husband and I fully appreciate the blessing of our happy and healthy family.  While we have had some hardships, we have not truly suffered in our efforts to build a family. Some of you reading this may have suffered and my heart goes out to you.

We have come to the firm conviction that we shouldn’t continue to grow our family biologically. This was a hard decision, but it was not devastating for me. As a young teenager, I attended a baby shower for an adoptive child.  Since then, I’ve hoped to build a family through adoption someday. My husband John was always open to the idea. We started the process in December of 2007.  In August of 2008, we enrolled in a pilot program with Burkina Faso.

From an emotional standpoint, waiting to adopt is exactly like being pregnant. You can’t wait to meet your child – to see the shape of their mouth and nose, to discover if they’re serious or goofy, to celebrate their obvious talents and to help them discover hidden ones.  You’re scared sometimes and – of course – you worry a lot. And just like in a pregnancy, sometimes the yearning to meet that child feels unbearable.

In September of 2009 we were notified of a child who, tragically, became unavailable for adoption 2 weeks later. If adoption is just like a pregnancy, the feelings of loss associated with this experience were identical to those with my miscarriage. But I grieve differently for this child because his story hasn’t ended.  He’s still alive and he doesn’t have any family at all.

After that loss, those feelings of longing were making whole hours and days feel unbearable. I thought that our family was incomplete and that my life was on hold while I waited. Then two good friends took me by my shoulders and shook me (not really, but they might as well have) and said, “This is not right! God doesn’t give you days to waste by sitting around waiting for another day.”  Thank God for those good friends!

After that, I started praying specifically for a way to redeem this time and to do something for our adoptive country, where 1 out of 4 children die before the age of 5.  During my daily run one morning, the idea for Cookies For Africa just popped into my head. I was (still am!) convinced that it was the answer to that prayer.

So here I am, baking and decorating while I pray for our (yet unknown) adoptive children, for a little girl named Therese who is waiting to be united with this family;, for the little boy who was withheld from our family, and especially that a strong adoption program will be established between Burkina Faso and the United States.

With each set, I feel tremendous satisfaction knowing that at least two more mosquito nets are going to the vulnerable. Of course, with each set I also feel a little more desperate thinking about how many more need this protection.  But I’m doing what I can – and I am so, so thankful to YOU for doing what you can too, just by ordering these cookies. Thanks for partnering with me!!