Todays

Isla Rose was seven months old yesterday--how did I let that slip by me? Blessed third child. And don't get me started on the fact that in a little over two weeks Asher will be FOUR! When did that happen?? I have to try really hard to live in my children's "todays". I refuse to spoil this day by grieving what has passed or consequently longing for what has yet to come. I constantly live in that tug of war between anticipating the future and longing for what has been, with being ready to have a baby that sleeps through the night or eat table food without being fed to watching my little boy grow up much too quickly, running, jumping, doing flips (sometimes I think where did this big kid come from??). So I am committed to living in today. I don't want to regret anything about this time of young motherhood. I know before I blink, this time will be over.


Things are our normal every day crazy. We stay pretty busy just with all these little ones running around our house hah! Asher is learning to write his name! It is so neat to watch him hold a pencil and write the letters to his name and actually watch him learn! I have plans/dreams to homeschool so I know there will probably be lots of days like this, but I marvel at watching something finally click. I decided a while ago that I wasn't going to push him to learn letters or writing before he was ready because I really want him to have a joy for learning. He will have many many years to be in school and write his name. I'm excited that he is beginning to show some interest in it (as long as he can write with his super hero pencils :))

Don't you adore this handsome face

Honor is about as sassy as a little two year old can get. We are constantly laughing at her little personality.

See what I mean?

Beauty

She will do anything that Asher does. My mom kept Honor this past weekend while Zack and I were out of town for a wedding and she was asking me what she liked to do. I honestly thought, I'm not sure. She just loves to be with Asher. She follows him every where. She plays what he plays, says what he says, jumps when he jumps. It is so sweet what good buddies they are. An answer to my prayers.

At story time

Playing police officers. I was informed they were fighting bad guys and bears.

Cat face buddies

Big brother including Isla in the fun

The three amigos

 

My whole heart, right there in a wagon

 I remember praying before Honor was born that she and Asher would be best friends (and again when Isla was born) and the Lord heard my prayers and blessed us with children that have fun together! (We'll see if this is still the case in 10 years hah!)

And then there's sweet Isla Rose--by far our sweetest baby...I mean for real people, she is the sweetest thing

Like a little baby doll

 She babbles and giggles all the time. She is sitting up by herself, but doesn't seem to have any interest in going anywhere yet. If I lay her on her tummy to try to get her to scoot around, she just rolls over on her back and laughs and coos.  Asher was sitting up at 5 months and crawling at 6; Honor was sitting at 6 months and crawling around 8 months, so I guess Isla will follow Honor's pattern. She is so easy going. We took her with us this weekend out of town to a wedding and she just went with the flow. We were out until after 10 oclock Friday night and she stayed happy.

Wedding weekend with Mommy and Daddy

 She is content as long as she has something/someone to watch. She is going to be so observent. Even last night at our connection group, we were led in Bible study by Jay and she just sat in the floor and watched him while he talked for most of the time. She is such a joy. I guess after the first two, I earned a calmer baby. I'm sure that will change when she can move around and follow the older two. But I'm not rushing that. In other happy news, we went to the ocularist last week and they told us she will get her painted shell (prosthetic eye) at our next visit in December! I'm excited to see the process. It will be interesting. But at the same time, I will miss her look. Her sweet little eye is so endearing to me. but this was always our goal right? I read something on a friend's blog of mine a while ago. She was blogging about her daughter who is in a wheel chair and said that the world sees her daughter and says she is disabled, but God has seen her daughter and declared her wonderful. WOW! I speak that truth over my precious Isla Rose. God has seen you baby girl and declared you wonderful! I remember blogging about this before she was born, before I knew what she would look like or how her personality would be so precious that I could literally eat her up! I think even then God was preparing my heart for this girl. I believe with everything I am and all that is in me that God is going to use her little life for HIS glory and to share His good news. (I believe that and claim that for all my children) Ok didn't mean to go into all that.....but sometimes I can't help but share how the Lord continues to give me so much grace and work in my heart!

Other news: Zack's birthday is on Friday--entering his last year in his twenties! If I don't mourn over my children growing up, can I still be sad that we are getting older?  ;) I'm only halfway kidding--cherish the present--right?

Summer Bucket List

The Casey Family Summer Bucket List in Pictures.......

Pick berries!

Park Play!

 Summer Reading! (The kids each read over 30 books!! We love the library!!)

 Movie!

We took everyone to see Brave! It was awesome!! They are still talking about it hah!

 The BEACH!!

The most wonderful 7 days I had all summer was spent at one of my most favorite places!! Look at those girls in their matching digs :)

And of course, lots and lots of swimming!!

 We had lots of fun checking things off of our list. We did lots of little things too like pizza night, watching a sunset, VBS, watching fireworks, taking a picnic, going to the Farmer's market, catching a firefly, building a fort. Needless to say, we have had a FUN and busy summer.

Big Day for Isla Rose

Last Monday we had our first visit with the ocularist. It was such a good visit. I was really anxious about the ride to the Birmingham (she hates her carseat) and how she would do at the visit, but she slept the whole way there and most of the way back! and we were able to learn a lot about what to expect in the coming year for Isla. We really enjoyed meeting the Cox Ocular "family". They, of course, gushed over what a darling little chunk of love Isla Rose is, which we already knew :) They looked at her eye and made a conformer for her. It is basically a clear shell that looks like a really thick plastic contact lens. They put it in her eye and it slid right in. She did not like it one bit! It caused a little bit of swelling, but once she got calmed down, we were able to see that it was in place and didn't seem to be hurting her. They showed us how to take it out and put it back in (which hopefully we won't have to do) They told us that unless it shows signs of infection or it happens to come out accidentally, we would need to leave it in until we come back to see them next month. Ms. Elise (the ocularist) told us that she has a nice sized globe and socket so we won't need to be very aggressive with the conformers and hopefully if all goes well, she will get her prosthetic eye when she is a year old, if not before. She said for what she has, it is the best case scenario. They see so many children with much smaller eyes and sometimes even no eye/eyes at all.  Isla has done really well since we've been home. The conformer causes her eye to open up much more now and it is wider too. It doesn't seem to bother her at all. 

This was Monday night after her visit.  Happy girl!

This was taken this past Monday--what a chunk!!

Through a mutual friend, we were able to meet a family in our area who has a 4 year old son with microphthalmia also. I don't know if I've shared that on here or not, but we had dinner with them a while ago and they shared with us what their experience had been so we knew going in to the visit what to expect. I am so thankful to the Lord to have met this family! They have seven children--yes seven. Their youngest three are boys and Asher had the BEST time running around and playing like big tough boys play. :) I dream of seven children so it was fun to see their dynamic and how they all relate to one another and it was awesome just to be with another family who loves the Lord and have walked the road that we are walking and are thriving! So encouraging! I love how God will provide people in seasons of your life to encourage you. He is so good like that!  Here's a video of sweet Isla Rose talking. She coos and babbles so much now. I love it! I think she will be talkative like her siblings!

Dad's day

I love my man, for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons and the one we celebrate that certain Sunday in June is for being a Father. For Father's Day this year, Zack wanted to work around the house.  You heard that right people. He spent the day cutting the grass with Asher and weed eating with his new toy :) Saturday we took a trip to Nocalula Falls and walked/hiked around the park. Low key, family fun. I know I'm sounding braggy, but I am so thankful there is not one lazy bone in that man's body. He would much rather spend the day doing something active and productive the laying around on the couch watching t.v. Sunday we went to church, we grilled ribs for lunch and that night he grilled again at my parents house. It was a fun weekend celebrating the men in our lives. Before we had kids,  I honestly didn't know what kind of dad Zack would be. He didn't ever really have much to do with children, never really talked about kids much and didn't seem to be in a hurry to have kids once we got married, while I, on the other hand loved baby sitting, loving on squishy babies and couldn't wait to have a whole houseful of my own. But my worries/fears/wonderings whatever you want to call them immediately dissipated the moment they laid our firstborn in our arms.

Daddy meeting Asher

Meeting his first baby girl, smitten from the start

Proud Daddy and brother

Holding Isla Rose....Daddy x3!

Zack is the most amazing Daddy! (and I'm not just saying that because I think he is generally awesome at everything he does--he really is!!) I live with this man people. I see him every day and I could write endless pages about his integrity, dilligence, discipline, hard work and above all his love for his children. And since I know that not everyone would love to read something like that :), I'll just show you what I mean....

....Bravery! Zack's got it, just look at that snake! All for his sweet little girl's sake...

Family Traditions...This is just one of many traditions we have as a family. Zack is so awesome about creating fun things for us to do together. 

Movie night--a few weekends ago Zack set up a big screen (aka bedsheet) and projector for us to watch a movie together.

Teaching his boy how to say War Eagle!

....Patience! Playing patient takes patience when you don't have the gentlest of doctors....

Rough housing...isn't that what Daddys are for? Every day when Zack gets home, he plays with the kids. You name it they play it, super heros, legos, trucks and car racing,  princess, tea party. Every day.  I don't know, maybe it's because I don't have any memories of doing things like this with my dad, but these pictures, these memories just make my heart happy.

Daddy, in our hearts you are the world's greatest Dad. We are over the moon for you! Thank you for loving us, delighting in us, leading us to love Jesus more. We are so lucky to have you!

One day I spent two weeks in Haiti

“One day I spent two weeks in Haiti.” Our team learned this little saying the second day of our trip; by the time we left I understood it fully. It’s now been one week since we returned home and I’ve had time to recover and process the trip, so I wanted to share a little about it….in reverse order.

This time last week I was sitting in my recliner receiving a couple of liters of fluid via IV that my mother-in-law started in the parking lot of the Atlanta airport in our minivan. The last two days of the trip I was pretty sick. My assumption is that I ate something bad and beyond that I won’t share too many details. I will say that being sick, away from home on mission, without the conveniences we’re normally used to (Gatorade, air conditioning, electricity, regularly running water, drug stores, etc.) all while your supposed to be “the leader” was a humbling experience. All dignity was lost during a two-hour van ride home from the beach on Saturday when the entire team got to watch me hanging out the window, losing it, almost the entire way. I was done: dehydrated, I didn’t eat a meal for about 3 days, and lost about 10 pounds I think. Thankfully, the Lord had mercy on me Monday as we traveled home. I felt good all day and made it home without any problems (even ate some Chick-fil-A).

I looked pretty rough at this point

Imagine being sick out of the window here!

Now, let’s back up to the other 92% of the trip. Our team was on the ground for 7 days and 7 nights in a small city called Tabarre which lies about 20 – 30 minutes outside of Port Au Prince. I won’t try to describe the whole Haiti experience. If you’re not familiar, be sure and check out a great video one of our team members did of our trip (Haiti video), think tropical heat and humidity, mosquitoes, somewhat rural conditions compared to what most of us are used to, haphazard driving, free roaming livestock, and more. Haiti is a beautiful country. It’s tropical and can be very picturesque, especially the mountains and beaches.

Our team had the privilege of staying at the home of the pastor of the church that we went to serve. Pastor Celestin and his wife have 8 children (5 still at home) and are humble, faithful servants. We were humbled by the fact that the family gave up two of the three rooms in their house for our team. This meant Pastor C and his boys slept outside on the concrete patio on a piece of carpet, while Madame Celestin and their two girls slept in the remaining bedroom. Without any air-conditioning or fans and half the time no power any ways, most of our team ended up sleeping outside also, since the bedrooms felt more like saunas.  We spread out all over the place: some in hammocks, some on the roof, some in tents, some in sleeping bags and a few remained inside. And no, it doesn’t get cooler at night.

The whole purpose of our trip was to come alongside the church in Tabarre and serve them and their community. We wanted to join in the ministry they are currently involved in and provide some encouragement and any kind of “boost” that might have been possible. The large focus of our energy was spent with children, which was great. Several years ago, the church started a primary school that now runs around 50 children. In the mornings, we were able to go and teach in the classrooms for a few hours. This stretched us and made us reach back to our basics like math, time, measurements, and geography.  Thanks to my wife’s idea, I went prepared to use my degree and teach a little life science. So our class of 5^th & 6^th graders spent the week learning the water cycle, nitrogen cycle, plant reproductive cycle, and photosynthesis. This was all fresh to them and even their professor asked some questions (he was a little skeptical I think). The great thing about the school was that we incorporated Bible teaching into everyday as well. We had times of worship and devotionals, and even saw several children come to faith in Christ!

The school (and church)

My 5th & 6th grade class

The afternoons were also spent with children. In the middle of the neighborhood there’s a huge field where we hosted a sports camp. 80-90 kids, ages 4 to 14 would show up to play everything from tug-a-war to duck-duck-goose. These were long, hot 2-hour segments of the day but provided a great ministry to the children of the community.

In between school and the sports camp, our team had the opportunity to divide up and do some mercy ministry. This is basically door-to-door visitation with specific families for the purpose of sharing the gospel, praying with them, and blessing them with a small gift of rice, beans, oil, and pasta. We were able to see a lot of the community this way and a wide variety of living conditions. The thing that stood out to me doing the mercy ministry was the honesty of the people we met. They either openly denied the gospel (but weren’t rude about it) or they had accepted it and openly confessed they were living in sin. It was oddly refreshing. We saw several of the people we visited during the day show up at the services that the church was having each night. That was really neat for our team to see the immediate impact of that visit. At the end of the week we even saw two girls accept Christ as a result of that ministry!

The field where we played sports

This was the bulk of our time and mission in Haiti. There is so much I could share. I preached my first translated sermon at the church, we learned to eat mangos and sugar cane, the sounds of the night, the American family pizza restaurant we discovered next door to the Celestins’, the Port Au Prince airport experience, and more. But, mostly I was so proud of the 11 college students we took. These guys and girls remained unified throughout the week, worked super hard, were very flexible, sacrificial, bold, and relational. It was a very successful trip and a great experience.

I want to give a special shout out to Darrell Johnson, who we partnered with for this trip. His organization is Global Ethos. Pastor Johnson is an incredible man of God who gets short-term missions. Our trip would not have been possible and definitely would not have been successful with him. He loves God, loves people, and led us well. We also took two awesome translators: Pastor Alain and Immanuel. Both of these men are Haitian but are US citizens. Pastor Alain pastors a Haitian church Miami. He also was a great asset and leader for our team. Manny (Immanuel) lives in Atlanta and just loves the Lord. His passion for people and worship is so evident. These guys made our trip so much better and our team gleaned so much from all three of them.

The church

Happy 2nd Birthday Honor!!

My sweet, precious Honor is two years old! Zack and I were talking the other day and while the two years have gone by quickly, it seems funny to think she is just now turning two mainly because of her extensive vocabulary.  This girl can talk! and talk she does, almost constantly.  We didn't throw Honor a birthday party this year, which I felt kind of guilty about, but with Zack being out of town, trying to function on "newborn sleep" and the wedding coming up, I just didn't have time to plan anything spectacular. We took some time to plan a special day for her. We took her to the zoo, Toys R Us and Gigi's. On her actual birthday, we went to the museum and got a corndog from Sonic (per her request) and opened her presents.   This past Sunday, our families got together and had a birthday lunch to celebrate sweet Honor with Daddy back home.  We ate hot dogs and sang Happy Birthday to her. She hopped around saying "It's my birthday, it's my birthday"

The day Honor was born was such a sweet special day. Becoming a Mom to a little girl was a dream come true. What a challenge for me also, to mother a daughter, to show her what a woman is like and teach her the blessing of pursuing heavenly things. She has a sweet heart and is precious! Everyone that knows Honor adores her. I wanted to make a list of some of the things I want to remember about her at this age:
She loves anything and everything princess. Her favorite Disney princess is Ariel.
She loves playing tea party and with her babies. She will wrap her babies up with a towel or blanket. She has named several of her babies, some of them include Baby Princess Ariel, Baby Chloe, Big Baby, Baby Cici, and Baby Samantha (which sounds like Baby Mantis)
She loves to sing. She makes up her own songs, which I love! She sings ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, The Red song, and several worship songs that Mommy likes to listen to in the car.
She loves her brother and her sister. She will try to do anything Asher does. She follows him around and copies everything he does. She adores Baby Isla and I know she is going to be such a good big sister.  She kisses on her all the time. Her go to phrase when she talks to Isla is "She's lookin at me" and "She's wakin up" (she says this even if she's been awake for an hour, it's always she's waking up)
She is MESSY! especially when she is eating. It reminds me of the character Pigpen on Charlie Brown that walks around in a cloud of dirt. I try to keep her clean, but the second I wipe her face, it gets dirty again. Please know I try people! :)
When you ask her to say her full name, she says Honor Casey Boo.  This may be one of my favorite things about her. I love it! I don't know where she came up with it, but she just one day started calling herself that and it stuck. Her nicknames include Honor Boo, Honnie Bonnie, and Boo Cakes.
She loves to eat. She's not super picky. Her favorite foods right now are macaroni, or any type of pasta, fruit, cheese, hot dogs and chex mix. Chex Mix is her favorite snack!
She is happy pretty much all the time. We have been very blessed with pleasant and happy children.
When she eats, she says she is a beaver and makes a funny beaver face.
She has to sleep with her two blankies and at least two pacifiers and sometimes one of her dolls.
She loves to have her back scratched before she goes to sleep (just like her momma).
She is so smart! She has been talking in sentences since she was 18 months old.  She likes to read and will actually sit down with a familiar book and "read it" to herself.

There are so many things I can say about this sassy little girl. Sometimes I look at her and still can't believe she is mine. She is such a joy and such a blessing. Happy 2nd Birthday Honor! We love you!!

Honor's "birth"day

Honor on her first birthday. Photos taken by the awesome Tin Can Photography

Happy Birthday Honor!