Divinity School Memorial Service

You are cordially invited to gather at the University of Chicago Divinity School, to mourn the loss and celebrate the memory of: Joshua Eric Casteel 1979-2012 Friday, November 9th Memorial Service at 5:00 pm Swift Hall, University of Chicago 1025 E 85th St, Chicago, IL 60637 Third Floor A reception with Joshua’s friends, family, and […]

St. Marcellus Award

I thought I would post the invitation to the St. Marcellus Award recognition event and the mass and dinner held in Joshua’s and my honor coming up soon at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. if there are any of you who would like to attend. I know timing may be an issue for many […]

Joshua’s Eulogy

Joshua Eric Casteel All Saints Catholic Church 8 September 2012 –This is the culmination of Joshua Casteel’s earthly journey, right now as we have gathered for his Funeral Mass. It is here that we all are plunged into the mystery of our Savior’s death and resurrection as we mourn the death of a man so […]

Finding Peace

Hello Everyone, I know it is late and although I’ve been battling headaches again and I should be sleeping, I just felt unsettled enough that I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep anyways so decided to update those of you who may still check out this site about a few inspiring things that have […]

Memorial Service Details

Friday September, 7, 2012: Wake and Visitation: Cedar Memorial Funeral Home Chapel (near the flower shop), 4200 First Ave, NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 4:00 – 7:00 pm (Wake 4 – 4:30) Saturday September 8, 2012: Memorial Service: All Saints Catholic Church, 720 29th Street SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 10:00 a.m. Luncheon and celebration […]

No More Pain

Yesterday Joshua went home to meet his Heavenly father and to embrace again his earthly father. We miss him with all of our hearts and every ounce of our beings. We cling to the promise that we will see him again. His body is healed and for that we rejoice. When we finalize plans for […]

Bedside Photo

Still smiling through it all! We love you, Joshua and the Casteel family. - Chad

Prayers for Joshua

[Reposted from CaringBridge] I’m writing this with a very heavy heart as this may be our final plea for prayer for God’s healing for Joshua.  As you know he was in the hospital for 10 days with Pancreatitis and came home still filled with the 22lbs. of fluid they pumped into him.  He was not […]

Brief Update

I wanted to post a short update to this long-dormant site, for those of you who might not be following on CaringBridge or Facebook. Joshua has checked back into the ER in New York. His condition has taken a step back in the last few days. I know that he and his family would cherish […]

Chemo and Radiation

Hi – this will be a quick update but I did want to let you know that Joshua started a chemotherapy regimen on Friday and today he begins another 14 day course of radiation on two spots on his spine. We are praying that the radiation provides some pain relief. For the last 8 weeks […]

A Quick Switcheroo!

Hopefully this doesn’t cause too many problems, but we’re going to switch back to Caring Bridge temporarily. The updates come out quite a bit faster (I don’t usually get my updates til the following day on this website), and with Josh’s current condition it is nice to know people are getting the info/prayer request/etc. soon […]

thank you

I just want to say thank you to those of you who have recently written in response to Joshua’s latest battle with pain and now his surgery. I’m reminded of Moses in the scriptures who had his arms held up to keep blessing and victory flowing to the Israellites, but I think we are being […]

Week’s Lesson…Stay Flexible!!!

Well, this am. I got a call from Dr. Seigal’s office letting us know that Joshua’s surgery time has been changed again. (I heard Dr. Seigal is very very busy and if I were him I’d rather be out to dinner with my wife than in the operating room anyday). So the new time is […]

Change in Surgery Date

Just wanted to let everyone know that there’s been a change in the date of Joshua’s surgery. Instead of Thursday at 5, it will be Friday at 5-ish. The Dr. had a conflict in schedule. So everything else is the same…we’ll check into Mercy Hospital at 1:00 and have the afternoon to get him prepped, […]

Surgery…and hopefully relief and healing!

Today Joshua and I met with Dr. Seigal, a neurosurgeon, to talk about his latest MRI which showed cancer on his spine in the lumbar region, the source of his most recent pain. Unfortunately by the time we had our appointment he was in a lot of pain. We had been worked into the doctor’s […]

One down…one to go! (important appts. that is)

Wanted to pass on that we went to the cardiologist today and Joshua had an echocardiogram to make sure everything was ok in that department. (his heart was racing at a former appt.) Even tho the we haven’t gotten the official report the tech said she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary that she […]

I wanted to bring over a post I had to put on Caringbridge because this site was not working Sat. night when I wrote this. I know many of you don’t read Caringbridge anymore and this is the first time I have transferred a post so we’ll see how it all pans out. It’s a […]

2nd full round of radiation…FINISHED!!!

Hi Everyone! Its Naomi again. Its been quite a while since I have posted an update, so since I have new photos and video of Josh to upload, I thought it was high time to say a hello! Ever since Joshua stopped teaching and our weekly trips to Chicago were eliminated its become harder and […]

Prayer for pain relief…

I just wanted to ask everyone to keep Joshua in your thoughts and prayers right now because his hip, leg and lower back pain have gotten pretty bad. For the first time in quite awhile we’re back on the pain med Dilaudid. And today the DR. encouraged him to go up on the dosage so […]

Unmentioned Request & Pulmonologist Report

Just a quick report (really) because I have to get up early for an appt. in Ia. City tomorrow.  Today was a day of appointments…massage for Joshua which was great.  Really helped his aching bod…she let up on the pressure and he said he felt better after this one than any of the previous ones. […]