Hope for the Holidays!

I haven't posted in the past couple of months. I have had trouble finding the words to express this waiting in ways that wouldn't sound whiny and monotonous. The truth is that this part of the journey is hard and it feels impossible. Even though we are closer to our sweet Cora than we have ever been, we also don't have tons of paperwork to fill out (praising Jesus for that!). That paperwork fills the waiting and the panic to make everything perfect tends to take my mind off the fact that another day has past and Cora has grown another day without her family. 



There have been some amazing bright spots in this time of waiting. Wonderful amazing things that have bolstered us with so much hope! First of all, by this time next week we will have had 3 baby/toddler showers! 1 every month since my last post! It's been so special to have friends and family pour out their love for Cora. It has been wonderful to share her story and to have our loved ones share in the joy and some of the tears. It gives us so much hope to feel how many of you are walking this journey with us. Our first shower was hosted by best friend and was held in one of my favorite places in Chattanooga, the Hunter Museum on November 29, just after Thanksgiving. It was beautiful! I was so blessed to be able to spend the time with friends and family that I don't see very often and to focus totally on my beautiful daughter. Just before Christmas, our wonderful church family hosted our second shower. Again, we were overwhelmed with the love that was shown to us and our daughter. This shower had a Christmas theme and the spirit was present for sure. Our next shower will be next weekend just after New Year's. It's been a blessing that all of our showers have been during the holidays. This can be a very difficult time to be half a world away from our daughter and tangibly feeling that we are not alone in missing her and anxiously anticipating her arrival has bolstered us through. 


This brings me to our news! It's the best bit of hope we have received this holiday season....

We have our first court date in Ind*a!!! 

This means that our court process has finally and officially begun! We still don't have an exact idea of when Cora will be coming home and we won't probably until this part of the process is over. But we are so much closer. Our first hearing date is on January 12. We could have several hearings and this part of the process could take several weeks. We'll know more on Jan. 13. We will not have to travel to Ind*a for court. This part of the process takes place without us there. Please continue to pray that things go smoothly. We will update you more as the court process progresses.