back from Iowa

You may or may not have known that Brian and I went to Pella, Iowa to spend time with his family the day after Thanksgiving. It was SO great. We had a wonderful time and that is why although i wrote 17 blog posts in my head over the week, they never made it to my blog:) We stayed at his brother & wife, Mark & Gina's house. Got to see Brian's sister and her family as well as Mom and Dad Zylstra who were there for a few weeks visiting. And Brian's aunt and uncle from Michigan drove to Pella for a few days. It was nice to relax and be together. I felt normal for that week. We talked a lot about Esther and our life. Mark's 3 girls are precious. Lucy is the oldest and she understood what was going on and didn't really say much. Molly is the middle and kept saying she can't believe she is going to have another cousin:) And Ruby is 3 and is a ball of energy to say the least. Every day she asked me if i still had a baby in my tummy. Our conversations went like this:

Ruby: "Do you still have a baby in yo tummy?"

Monica: "Yes i do"

Ruby: "What's his name?"

Monica: "you know HER name."
Ruby: "Oh yeah, its Estow _(she can't say her r's so it sounds like Estow) and then she would laugh and pat my belly.

So stinkin cute. Gina was concerned if that was bothering me, the girls talking about her, but i thought you know what? I want her to be talked about. And no matter what happens, they DO have another cousin. It actually made me happy talking about her with the girls. I love those kids:) I must post a few pictures so you can see what i am talking about. (Gina, i hope its ok!)They love their Uncle Brian and the picture below is what you would find them doing on any given day.

Yep that's Brian on the bottom. Most of the time he is the horsey, however he isn't as young as he used to be. But he loves it! We got back from Iowa Wednesday night and i went to see Dr. Cook again on Thursday morning. Have i mentioned how wonderful he and his staff are? Really, i feel so taken care of. I have to go see him weekly so they can keep tabs on me and make sure i am in good health. We also take a peek and see how Esther is doing. Yesterday she was ok. Her heart is still beating but there is less amniotic fluid now, which i think means her kidneys and things are slowing down. She is having to work so hard! Fluid keeps increasing. We did also get the results back from our amnio that we had at Swedish last week. It confirmed that Esther does have Turner's Syndrome. As best as i understand it, this is a genetic mutation of the 23rd set of chromosomes, that make up the sex of the baby. She should have two X chromosomes and she has only one. This is a blessing to find out for future babies, this means that it is random and the likelihood of it happening again is the same as for anyone. So there is no problem between Brian and my chromosomes. As for Esther, according to the statistics, she has a 1% chance of survival. That statistic does not matter to me, but just letting you know where we are at, unless the Lord intervenes and wants to heal her. And i believe he has the power if he so chooses! Thanks for your continued prayers. I tell everyone that i know that is why i am doing ok. Well not all the time, but you know what i mean. The Lord is near, he is present and is walking with us through this. Thanks for walking with us too:)

Blessings~ Monica