Hannah's 1/2 Birthday

Hannah is 18 months old and is doing so much! As you can see, getting a picture with her bear is getting harder all the time! I am so thankful to be home this summer and at this time in Hannah's life. She is so much fun and is learning new things all the time. What a joy to be called her Mommy & Daddy! Here are some highlights of what Hannah's up to right now:

*Hannah is getting more coordinated all the time. When she gets really excited she starts running somewhere. It is really cute watching her shuffle along to get a toy or book, chase after the dogs or catch up to us.

*In the midst of everything crazy the last two weeks, she had a case of Hand, Foot & Mouth. Who knows where she got it from, but luckily it only affected her for a couple of days.

*Our slow teether is starting to catch up! Within the last few weeks, all four molars have broken through and her other bottom two teeth finally are coming in as well. Between the H, F & M and her teeth, no wonder she hasn't felt good at times.

*Hannah still isn't a big talker, but she signs "please"-"milk"-"more" & "all done."

*She can point to her belly, nose, mouth, eyes, feet, hands and hair.

*Hannah has recently really started playing with puzzles. She can put her farm puzzle pieces to the right place and sometimes shift them to make them fit.

*She still loves looking at books! She especially loves peek-a-boo/lift-a-flap books and touch-and-feel books.

It is so fun to see her learning new things all the time! It's amazing how quickly she learns something. One minute she is doing something new occasionally and then the next she does it all the time. I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds for us.

Update -- Still in God's Hands

Kind of a silly title because we are always in His hands but that's the best I could come up with for the time being. :-) I wanted to write a quick update about what has happened since our intial finding out about the ectopic and treating it with the Methotrexate.

Yesterday, I had a repeat ultrasound and bloodwork drawn to see how things were progressing from the medicine. The doctor who read the ultrasound said that the pregnancy had not gotten any smaller, but couldn't quite tell if it had gotten bigger. He also saw some fluid in my pelvis. When speaking with my doctor later in the day, she said it looked okay but that they were still waiting for the hcg levels because both were needed to know what to do next. She called back a bit later and had some not-so-good news -- my levels actually had gone up instead of going down. We discussed our options (another shot or surgery to remove it) and I decided on going with my gut instinct of surgery. Even though at the time she felt confident another round of medicine would work, I was ready to be done with everything. I hated having to wait after the drug was administered to see if it worked all the while having some slight pain and discomfort. So, since I hadn't eaten much that day, my doctor said to come on over and we'd do the surgery.

Once I was checked in at Barnes, we went right into pre-op and got started right away. The surgery took about an hour and a half then I was back among the living (kind of) after about 30 minutes of recovery. The doctor told me the surgery went very! I talked to my doctor some more this morning and got additional information. I did have some bleeding in my abdomen and the pregnancy was just beginning to rupture so we definitely made the right decision. She did have to remove my left fallopian tube because it had been damaged by the near-rupture. Other than that, things went really well. I stayed over night and am hoping to be discharged sometime today.

Once again, I praise God for giving me some good gut feelings. When I talked with my doctor yesterday my gut was to do the surgery and be able to be done with everything instead of waiting for another treatment to see if it would work. After talking to the doctor this morning, we both knew it was the best decision. There is a good chance that it would have ruptured last night and the surgery would have been a bit more "emergency." I know without a doubt that God gave me that instinct to go ahead and do the surgery from the beginning. I praise Him for being with us and watching over us throughout this whole process. I have no idea God's plan for the Casey family because this certainatly wasn't how we planned this, but I have complete faith that it is something amazing. I am so glad that He is in charge of our lives and not us!

Thank you God for protecting my family and me over the last few weeks. We praise you for all of the little signs and gut feelings that made this situation much safer for me. Thank you for being with the doctors and giving them the knowledge and tools to do what needed to be done. I especially thank you for the people you have put in our lives -- both family and friends. Thank you for always being in control and loving us continually!

In God's Hands

This isn't going to be an exciting post, but since I use this blog as a journal of our family I want to make sure this is a part of it. We have had quite the experience over the last two days. Just about two weeks ago Tim & I found out we were pregnant based on a home pregnancy test. We really hadn't told a lot of people yet because it was very early. On Tuesday, I headed north to Kristina's house to have some college girl time with a few of my girlfriends. Yesterday morning I woke up with some pretty severe stomach pains/cramping. My gut told me that something wasn't right. I finally decided (with the advice of my friends) to have things checked out at the ER. From the beginning, the pain was more on one side than the other and I was worried that maybe it was an ectopic pregnancy. After some tests and ultrasound this was confirmed. At that point I knew that things could possibly get bad very quickly depending on what was going on. However, the good news was it had not burst and was very small. I was able to discuss my options with my OB in St. Louis and decided to come home right away and get treatment from Barnes and my regular OB. I am very grateful because it was very early and very small still. I was able to avoid surgery and get treated with a drug instead. My doctor was very confident that this was going to be the best option especially to be able to try having more children later.

One thing I want to say is how thankful I am for my awesome friends and family. One of my college friends not only stayed with me in the ER (while the other one was taking care of Hannah) but then drove me to St. Louis (without a car to go back home) so that I wouldn't be alone then proceeded to take Hannah home and take care of her while Tim, my mom and myself were at the hospital. I also had so many people offer to do whatever was needed and most importantly be praying for my family as we were figuring this out. Thank God for amazing friends and family that He has provided to me.

The biggest thing I want to remember through this experience is how much I have felt the peace of God. I know that God has been with us through this entire process. I know because God works for the good of those who believe that He has a greater plan than we do. For whatever reason, this was not our time to have another baby and I know it will happen in the right time. I praise God for small blessings even though this isn't the way we wanted things to happen. Because I was cramping so early we caught it very soon which helped in so many ways. I know that was God helping me see that something was wrong. God has walked us through this just as He has done before and always will. I know He has a great plan for our family and we can't wait to see what that is! I know that we are in God's hands.

Camp!

This week we were able to volunteer as faculty for high school camp at Little Galilee Christian Assembly in Clinton, IL. From the time I can remember my uncle has been the dean at High School Main 1 week. I have great memories of being a "faculty kid" for a couple of years when I was young and my mom and dad were faculty at this week. Little Galilee has extra special meaning to me because during one of those weeks of camp I decided to give my life to Christ and was baptized in the old pool. Now my uncle is the camp manager and him and my aunt live at camp but he also still deans this week of camp. Last year, Hannah & I worked the week of camp but I was in and out a lot becuase Hannah was still nursing. This year we were able to all go work a week as a family and it was so much fun! We still stayed with my aunt & uncle at their house since Hannah is still pretty little but we were able to do a lot more. It was a fabulous week to get away from every day life and enjoy God's creation as well as be filled through worship and teaching. One of the sessions each day was going through the program "Walk Through the Bible" and it focused on the Old Testament. It was really awesome and I feel like I really learned a lot about the Old Testament. It was a really cool program. Overall, it was a great week of camp and I'm so glad we got to spend time as a family and introduce Hannah to Christian camping. I hope we are able to continue helping out.

Here is a picture of our camp "family."

Using Utensils

Hannah has been working really hard this summer at learning how to use her fork and spoon. Sometimes she still gets frustrated and resorts to her fingers, but overall she is doing a fantastic job. One of the foods we have introduced this summer is cereal with milk in it. It is quickly becoming a breakfast favorite and a perfect opportunity to practice with her spoon.

She also got to practice with a bowl of ice cream. Yummy! A summer favorite!

Another Friday Family Outing

We were able to enjoy one more Friday Family Outing before Tim starts his new job. We didn't want to spend a lot of money so we decided to go to Old Town St. Charles, Missouri to walk around and window shop. It was breezy and not to hot so it felt good to just be able to enjoy being together. Here is a family picture of us.

Originally, we were going to eat at one of the cute cafe's in Old Town, but the rain was coming in so we changed plans. We decided to head downtown and eat at the Old Spagetti Factory. This is one of my favorite places and it was the first time to take Hannah there. We had a lot of fun introducing her to a St. Louis favorite. Hannah and Daddy waiting for our food.

I think Hannah liked it -- you can see the spagetti mess left on her face and her digging into her spumoni ice cream!

Friday Family Outing

Last summer, Tim, Hannah & I tried to go explore something on Friday's because Tim's job allowed him to take some time on Friday's. This summer is going to be a lot different because in two weeks, Tim starts a new job. While this is very exciting for our family, I will miss these Friday's. We still have today and next week and we couldn't wait to go do something today. We chose Grant's Farm -- one of St. Louis' best family attractions! Grant's Farm is the land where the Busch family once lived and is now a wild life perserve. It is not only beautiful but has tons of things to do and see. One of the favorites is feeding the goats. Here is Hannah trying her hand at it. The worst part was that the goats eat so quickly that Hannah wanted to keep doing it!Hannah also got to experience her very first carousel ride! I think she really liked it!Here is Hannah and Daddy riding the tram back to the entrance. We had such a great day hanging out as a family!