Hi, I’m Julie and I am one of the incredibly lucky people who gets to claim Rebecca and Josh as friends. I’m here to do a short guest post to update you on the happenings of the past few days while Josh and Rebecca rest and recover from a terribly long and painful week.

Monday morning, July 1st, Rebecca went to work and, as she did frequently, scanned herself to check on her precious daughter. Unfortunately, this time she discovered that sometime over the weekend Jesus had taken Cora home to heaven. She delivered her sweet baby girl on Tuesday and they had a beautiful memorial service for her earlier today. Sometime in the next couple of weeks Rebecca will write a more in depth blog post, but in the mean time, you can look at Cora’s beautiful obituary here.

However, I wanted to get on here and let you know how you could help the Shraders in the coming weeks and months.

First, no matter where you live and no matter whether you know Rebecca and Josh in real life or just from reading their story here, please pray for them. Pray for their broken hearts, that God will shower them with His peace and His grace and that there will be many people who come to know Jesus or grow deeper in their relationship with Him as a result of their amazing testimony.

Second, if you live locally, please consider either making them a meal or sending them a gift card for a meal. For those of you who have grieved the loss of a loved one, you know that sometimes just brushing your teeth and getting a shower can take every ounce of motivation you have in you, much less grocery shopping, preparing and cooking a meal. This can be a wonderful and practical way that you can be a huge blessing to them. You can sign up for a date here.

Finally, if you want to make a long term difference in the life of the Shrader family, one that will last forever, please consider donating to their adoption fund in honor of sweet Cora. You see, Josh and Rebecca are passionate about the Gospel and as a result of that, have grown passionate about adoption. For as long as I’ve known them, adoption has always been one of the ways in which they desired to grow their family. They are hoping to start the adoption process in the near future and there is no better way in which you could honor Cora’s memory and her life than by contributing to the funds that will help bring her siblings into a loving home. The gospel is all about bringing beauty from ashes and bringing hope and life from death and mourning and so what a beautiful picture it would be if Cora’s far-too-early death can help to bring a future of hope for another child who is loved by God just as much as she. Please click here to contribute.

Thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support of Josh and Rebecca.

Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Love,

Julie