This picture set is from Miner's Jubilee weekend in Baker City. Check out the last two pics, they are of Ella when she was little taking a bath and the last one is of Hadley taken just yesterday. To us, they look so much alike...you be the judge!!!
Hello- You may or may not know this, but Janelle's brother, Cody Stauffer, is a minister in Payette, Idaho. Check out his blog- A New Kind of Minister.
Hello friends! Just a quick update before we head over to my in-law's house for the weekend and partake in the festivities known as Atomic Days! Janelle's 10 year high school reunion is this weekend and we're excited to be making the trip. Next weekend on the docket is a trip to my hometown for our very own fabled Miner's Jubilee Weekend. So we feel comfortable enough to go make visits because of the promising news our doctors have given us over the last two weeks. Yesterday Hadley had another pediatrician appointment and I (Casey) was fortunate enough to be able to take her!!! She weighs in at a whopping 9 lb, 1 oz. and is 21 inches long. She is GROWING!!!! We are so happy and yesterday was the first day that she was completely off the methadone without any ill effects. We just played it by ear yesterday and she didn't seem to need it. We helped her out by giving her some Tylenol yet even that amount throughout the day was minimal. Overall, she is doing very well!!! She even has slept between 6-8 hours at a time during the night, which mommy and daddy are very thankful for. That's all from our neck of the woods. Thanks again for your support, love, and friendship. It means the world to us. Don't forget to sign our guestbook!!!
Casey
Friends, things are going well at home. We've been taking our time with Hadley, learning so much about her real personality and nature. Ella has been loving on her like we never thought she would as well so that makes us happy! The last two weeks have been filled with a couple of different types of doctor's appointments and we met with the surgeon who basically did the operation on Hadley (he lives here in Boise, yet travels to Portland so he can have adequate support to complete the surgery). He said that he thought she was doing well and had talked with her cardiologist as well. The only thing that we are dealing with daily is her withdrawing from her medications. Hadley's body seems to be very sensitive to small changes and it is hard for her to adjust to the decrease in medication. We met with a person from the Infants and Toddlers program today and talked about a plan to work with Hadley. Because of the surgery, she will most likely have some developmental delays. The person said that she looked good though given her circumstances. It's hard because there aren't a ton of milestones to see her accomplishing when she is only a month or so old. This program can follow for up to 3 years, helping Hadley however she may need it so we are hopeful and delighted to have this opportunity to work with such a great organization to get Hadley back on track. Not much else is going on here, we're taking it a day at a time. Both Janelle and I are trying to get back into our workout schedule at the Y and I'm trying desperately to get back into my groove so I can get back to teaching some classes and bringing in some income. The slideshow above is a bunch of pictures we took on Sunday of the girls in their church dresses. I hope that you are all in good spirits and that things in your neck of the woods are going well. Please don't forget to sign our guestbook if you haven't already. Have a great week!!!
Friends, I know it's the 5th officially, I just wanted to wish each and every one of you a Happy 4th yesterday. I hope that all is well with each of you and you are in good spirits. Ella got to watch her first fireworks show here in Caldwell last night with her favorite cousin Logan. Mark, Amy, and Logan came over and we lit off some of our own fireworks before going into Caldwell for the BIG fireworks show. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to hang out with my brother while watching our two daughters play in the grass.
It's been a pretty good week when Hadley is concerned. She was officially weaned off of her medication at the beginning of this week and almost immediately began to withdraw from the medication. This means high-pitched screaming and her being generally uncomfortable. We have been watching her closely and monitoring her patterns of behavior to see whether this is a concern for her. The hard part about all of this is that we don't know if she's in pain from the surgery or withdrawing from the medication. Some of the symptoms are the same in each case. So it has been up and down for the last couple of days and our doctor got us a prescription for the medication to administer in a smaller dose that she was previously on. So she does well for awhile, yet still has her uncomfortable moments.
We have a doctor's appointment with the pediatrician today to see if she's gaining weight. These are weekly appointments because they are monitoring that aspect very closely.
Yesterday was a great day, we had Janelle's brother Cody and his wife Lisa over to have dinner. Janelle's mom has been here and it's been great! She is such a HUGE help around the house and unfortunately we have to say goodbye to her today. She is heading back home. I know that Janelle and I seriously couldn't have made the transistion back home without her.
On a different note, we are also selling our Audi wagon so if anyone knows anybody who needs a used car, it's a great vehicle. I have included some pictures below of the last couple of days around the house as well as a picture of our car. You can check out our ad for the car on craigslist.org under the cars & trucks link in the "for sale" section.
