one week down!

We have made it one whole week in the cast!!!!!!

Only 5-7 left to go!

We only have as long left in the cast as December 12th was ago.

December 12th - our church's women's annual sock exchange party, MOPS Christmas brunch

To be honest those things do still feel kind of like a long time ago BUT we are making it little by little!!

God is so gracious in seeing us through each and every moment.  

I think I have even gone two whole days without an "I hate the cast!!!" moment in my mind. 

Cora is doing really, really awesome!  

This is her first time to wear a nightgown instead of footie jammies!  Such a big girl!!  (Well, a big girl nightgown not a newborn gown.)

When she eats I tie one of my aprons above the cast to keep any food from falling down in there.  So far so good!  I've only found one Ritz cracker crumb and one homemade (by our friend Donna) tortilla chip crumb!  Yippee!

If you know us well you might just know that food is our love language and boy oh boy are we being SPOILED by wonderful, wonderful friends!  Kind and generous people are not only cooking delicious meals for us (and even bringing yummy desserts - dairy and egg free - not an easy feat!) but delivering them in COLD snowy weather!  So humbling and a gesture we do not take for granted!  Cora is enjoying some super good chicken here.  It is neat because David is starting to understand that it is a gift that people are blessing us with food and we have talked about how we can show kindness to people by taking them food.  It is neat to see him learning.  

One of the biggest hurdles I feel we've yet to overcome is clothes.  This is the only thing I've found in our vast wardrobe so far that keeps her diaper and the duct tape around the diaper area of the cast that holds the waterproof tape on from showing.  I am not really wanting to take her out in public with all of that showing.  I know it is really not *that* big of a deal but it feels like a big deal to me.  

Cora hanging out in her bean bag chair with lots of "friends"!

It is tricky that I can't just set her down on the floor just anywhere anymore.  We are getting used to it though.  

Sometimes she is content to lay on her back or her stomach to play with toys but poor girl, last night and today has been trying with all her might to push herself upright when she is on her tummy and she just can't do it.  :(  

One silver lining is that when she was a newborn I had this wooden sewing drawer on the changing table to keep diapers in and I really liked it but once she grew into bigger diapers they didn't fit in the sewing drawer so I had to retire it.  Since diapering now requires tiny diapers for the inside layer and bigger than she was wearing before diapers for the outer layer, I got my wooden sewing drawer back out for the little diapers, Poise pads for nighttime diapering and various tapes we have for the cast.  

Sometimes she doesn't mind being propped up against the couch or something to sit and play on the floor.  Toys have to be "tall" though or she can't reach them because she can't bend at the waist so if something small is on the floor right in front of her she can't pick it up.  So sad.  

See how her socks are half off?  She is *constantly* working her feet and our surgeon told us this is really good for everything to heal correctly by her exercising in that way.  God is so good to help Cora do exactly what needs to be done.  She doesn't have any clue that she is doing "physical therapy".  

I mentioned that clothing was one hurdle.  Our other biggest hurdle is the car.  Sweet girl hasn't been in the car since the trip home from the hospital last Thursday.  

We were told we would be able to borrow a carseat from the hospital that she would be able to fit in in the cast.  After surgery we found out that unfortunately the hospital was out of carseats.  They sent us home with a harness like this and Cora is supposed to lay across the back seat and we buckle the car's seatbelts through this.  It is pretty nutty.  

We have been on a walk around the neighborhood and walked over to our neighbor's house for a Super Bowl party and Adrian and I have each gotten out separately a few times but mostly we are sticking pretty close to home.  It would probably be harder if everything wasn't covered in lots and lots of snow here and the temps were in the negatives!  

It also really helps that we have had visitors!  

One of our friends from church gave us a couple places to try calling to see if we can get a carseat through them.  We shall see what happens on that front.  

Do you see those cutie curls on the side of her head??  

LOVE THEM!  

She is such a joy!

One week down!!  

Keep the countdown going!

Thank you so, so very much for all of you who are praying for us and blessing us in a myriad of ways from close by and from far away!

Kelly