God is good and so faithful and He shows it in so many ways.
Today He showed it to me in a way that may be small to most, but was big to me.
Both Ava and Madeline are sound asleep.
And our neighbors just dropped off a giant plate of cookies.
God is good.
:)
Here are some pictures!

Maddie telling us ALL about it!!

Ava and her snowman that she "made"

This is a cute baby!

Reese hanging out with the snowmen.

We have been home now for 5 days and Madeline is doing great!

We had her pediatrician appointment on Friday, and Madeline's doctor said the word we haven't heard in regards to Madeline: HEALTHY.
What a word we always took for granted before, and almost forgot it exsisted after.
We are so blessed and grateful at the good work that GOD has done so far and we KNOW that HE will be faithful to finish it.
We are so thankful and humbled.
Here are some pictures of our new baby girl!


11/26/08: Getting ready to leave... for real this time!

11/26/08: Say goodbye to your hospital room little girl!


The tiniest blood pressure cuff I have ever seen!

Auntie Emily decorated for Maddie's Homecoming!



Ava is such a great big sister! She helps take care of her sister & she shares her toys!
Sweet sweet baby!

Hi Everyone,
WOW! What a crazy week this has been. We just returned home from the hospital...we have been there since Tuesday, so 6 days at the hotel beaumont! It feels good to be home, but we miss our pretty girl so much! There is so much to tell and I don't know how I will put everything down.... so I will just start from the beginning.
As you know from Emily's post Madeline was born on November 18th weighing in at 10lbs 6 oz. I am still not sure how ALL of that fit into my body!!!
She came out crying which was a beautiful sound.
They showed her to us and we were able to see her "O". the opening was really small but the amount of intestines seemed SO big!
(Check out the photo gallery for pictures of the closed up O.)
Sam followed our princess up to be checked out and I went off to recovery.
A short time later Sam came down with 2 surprises.... one was to tell me the weight of our child and the next was to tell me that they were going to do surgery that day! They had to reopen the surgerical room , so it wasn’t going to be for a little bit. Sam then went back up to be with Madeline. A short time later he came back with an even better surprise... our baby girl. I was able to hold her and love her before they took her into surgery… It was incredible.... I am tearing up just thinking about it! By 6pm the surgery was done! When Doctor Morden came to talk to us he said the surgery went well. They were able to put everything back in and she already had an appendectomy! They needed the room to “lay her pipe” so to speak….. Maybe that was the purpose of the appendix! To make room for Madeline Oginsky to be put back! J He also let us know that there was a good chance of Madeline coming home in 7-10 days! What??? Much better then the 4-6 weeks he had originally told us! He mentioned that we would need to see her feeding and pooping and that it may take 1-3 days for her to have a bowel movement..... we finally were able to go down to see her at about midnight. (there were some complications with me after delivery....but that is a different story.) When we got there, the nurse said... Oh she just pooped! That was our first miracle in string of many! (That was also another first… the first time I referred to poop as a miracle!)
By the next evening all of Madeline’s tubes were out and we were able to hold the little peanut! Amazing!
The next morning they called and I was able to start to nurse her!
It was unbelievable how great she was moving along!
On friday night we had a little bit of a set back. Madeline began to spit up this really gross green stuff. We were able to keep feeding her, but it wasn’t going well. She continued to spit it up through the night. On Saturday morning we went down to see her, and she had spit it up through the night. We had to discontinue feeds. She had been doing so incredibly well and this was scary! The Doctors ordered x-rays of her upper & lower intestines to make sure that there were no bowels that were obstructed or rotated or kinked….. Praise God everything was fine. They did notice she had a lot of reflux. We still had to discontinue the feeds until the Doctors saw her the next day. But Saturday ended up being a wonderful day. It was just me and Sam and we were discharged, but able to spend the night that evening, just with out a nurse. So we were able to spend the entire day just holding and caring for Madeline with out any interruptions. Plus when we needed we could go and eat and sleep and we knew that she was in good hands. I would say that even though it started rocky, Saturday was one of the best days in my life.
By Sunday morning they OK’d us to start feeding Madeline again. She started eating right away. The only thing we did different was prop her bassinet up to help her digest her food. Madeline had absolutely NO spit ups all day Sunday and at the time I am writing this (7am Monday morning) she still hasn’t even spit up milk!
By the end of Sunday, they had taken her IV out and they are just monitoring her sugar (it was very high when she was born and since she has been getting most of her nutrition from the IV they cant tell if she can sustain good sugar levels on her own.) So far for the past 12 hours it has been great and has remained steady! (I have been calling the NICU every 3 hours. J)
We are hoping that we will be getting a call if not today then tomorrow that we can bring our little beauty home!
God Is so so good and through out this journey He has shown how faithful HE is and what his miracles are all about.
What Madeline has been through is something that may cause other issues down the road, but we know that no matter what happens, God is with us… so WHO can be against us???

We just want to thank everyone for all of their support through out this whole process. There have been so many praying and supporting us, I cannot express how grateful we are. The blessing of having people out there who care and pray and support FAR outweighs any other blessing out there!
This experience had the potential of being devastating, but it has been beautiful. We have seen the hand of God in every step we have taken. From the ultrasound to the delivery. From the Doctors and Nurses who have taken care of us to coming home and Madeline’s full recovery.

We will of course continue to update you on all the changes and news that goes on!

Love,
Sam, Erin, Ava & Madeline!

Maddie and her IV... she wants to eat it!

Proud big sister!

Hi Everyone,
We just wanted to give everyone a little update. We will be going in for the c-section tomorrow. It is scheduled for 12:45. After Madeline is born, she will be taken to the NICU to be examined by a neonatologist for any other issues. If the omphalocele is the only problem (which it has been on all of the ultrasounds) then they will schedule her surgery for that day or the next day.
From there it will be a matter of how well she is breathing on her own, and how well she is feeding and making bowel movements. Those things will determine when she will come home. The doctors are estimating 4-6 weeks, but we are praying for a MUCH quicker recovery.
Of course we will keep everyone updated with the emails & through our carepage & blog.
If you can, please pray for the following:

1. That the omphalocele is the only problem and there will be no other issues.
2. That God would give the doctors and surgeons wisdom and skill and that the surgery will be fairly simple and quick.
3. That Madeline would be strong and have a speedy recovery.
4. That Madeline would be a champion eater...... & pooper too!!! :)

We want everyone to know how much we appreciate all of the love and support that you have given to us in the past 21 weeks. There are no words to explain to you how it has encouraged us. God has already worked a miracle in our baby girl and we cannot wait to see all that He will do!

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
– Psalm 139: 13-18

I can't believe we are finally here. In a few short hours we will be finally meeting you face to face.
It seems like so long ago that we learned about your little belly boo boo and we were so sad and scared. We have come a long way since then and I know we have a bit longer to go, but I am amazed at how far away those feelings of confusion and emptiness feel.
We know you are in the hands of the ONE TRUE GOD. And those are the best hands to be in. God has shown us how faithful HE is in the past 21 weeks.
Each time we have visited the doctor we have had good news, and when there was some bad news, the next time the bad wasn't there any more!
He loves you so much and He handpicked you to be our daughter and we feel so blessed. We know that no matter what happens, you are in His hands and so are we and so is your big sister Ava.
I want you to know how much we love you and how grateful we are for your arrival.
You have taught us alot about trust, faith and the grace of God.

Well I had my second to last doctors appointment today!
I am currently dialated to 1 1/2cm and 50% effaced! You know what that means don't you?????
Absolutely nothing.
I means I could go into full blown labor tonight, or my body could just not do anything until November 18th, when we are going in for the scheduled c-section.
So yep..... that's about it! Maddie is doing pretty good though and we can't wait to see her little face! Ava is so excited to meet her little sister!
Please pray for my uterus, that it would get its act together and start contracting already!!!!
Love you all!

I hope everyone had a wonderful halloween! I know we did!

Grandma made Ava's pretty butterfly costume!
Justice, Ava & Ana

Tired after alot of running and yelling "trickrtreatthankyou"
A beautiful butterfly & a gorgeous sleeping beauty!

....... only 14 days left! yahoo!

It is amazing to me that time can go by so quickly, but also seem to crawl by as well!
(Does that even make sense?)
We had our last ultrasound today!
Madeline is doing great and has gained exactly 2 lbs! She now weighs 7lbs 3oz. If she keeps it up she should weigh about 8lbs 11oz when she is born. Her "O" looks good. It still only includes some undialated bowel and looks small compared to her tummy! Hopefully she will have her surgery and be able to be at home with us before we know it.
We cannot wait to hold her and kiss her up!
______________________

I am not sure if you remember from my last post we were able to get in contact with another family who's daughter Ella has an Omphalocele. She is now 8 weeks old. Hers is alot bigger than Madeline's will be, but she is having a hard time with eating.
Here is the link to their blog.
Please pray for them and for healing for little Ella.
__________________________

Finally, I just wanted to wish a happy birthday to my little sister Emily. Her birthday was October 22nd!


She also threw me a "baby #2" party on Sunday which was so fun.
We are blessed beyond words that you are in our lives!
We love you Auntie Emily!

Just a little update on what Madeline has been up to.
We have been having our NST's now for about 3 weeks.
They have been pretty good, but at our NST yesterday, they had to do an ultrasound to make sure her fluid levels were OK.
Thankfully they were good, but they were on the "high side of normal".
Sometimes babies with a birth defect will have higher levels of amniotic fluid. This in turn can cause them to come early.
At our last U/S Madeline was already 5lbs 3 oz so she is probably about 6 1/2 lbs by now, which is good.
But we would like for her to stay inside as long as possible, so she can be as healthy as she can be for her surgery.
Please pray that she will stay put until at least 36 or 37 weeks! (c'mon Maddie... that's just another 2 weeks!)
Thank you for all of your support and prayers!

Today we will be hosting a Harvest Party for our young marrieds group and so Ava and I made some apple pies. This is one of my favorite fall things to do and up until this year Ava was too little to care much. But this year she was the best helper I could ask for! She was so cute and so excited about the pies!
I am so blessed to have such a sweet girl as a daughter!

We started Ava in a ballet & tap class on Mondays.
She LOVES it! She liked soccer but she LOVES going to ballet class!
She is so cute! Here are some pictures from the other day when we were allowed to go into watch. She had the GLOW showing off all of her new moves!

Hi Everyone,
We had our 4th ultrasound and our 1st NST (non-stress test) today. Everything went really great! The omphalocele about the same and still includes only her bowels. It is still considered to be a moderate size. They were able to see all of the other organs in the abdominal cavity, and they are all growing well which is great! We got another great look at her heart which still looks good. She is measuring to be about 5lbs 3oz, which is really great as well. It is within the normal range for size… just on the big end! She already wants to be like her big sister! (Ava was 9lbs 5oz)
The NST went really well too. Her heartbeat was measuring 150 bps and she was “responding beautifully” (the words of the nurse!)
Again we want to thank everyone for all of their prayers for Madeline and our family. They mean so much to us and God has really given us a peace about a lot of the things our hearts have been anxious for. Please continue to pray, because we still have a long journey ahead of us, but we know that God is faithful and merciful and gracious and He will see us through!

The LORD'S loving kindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

So the countdown begins.
55 days..... 55 days!!!! 55 days?????
does the punctuation at the end of each of those little sentences describe how I am feeling about that number?
I am can't stop thinking about it and I am very excited... and I am freaking out a little bit!
Here is the latest on the medical front.
I have a scheduled c-section for November 18th.
I am freaking out about that word too... C-section.
I don't like the sound of a c-section. I usually turn the channel when they are showing them on "A Baby Story" Or "Maternity Ward" or on "Nightmare Delivery" or whatever baby show I am watching.
I know that other people have had these c-sections and they survive on a fairly regular basis,(Aimee.... I am happy you are still here.) but I have never had a surgery before besides my wisdom teeth and let's face it... that's just NOT the same.
Plus I keep having dreams that the c-section is horrific. That one of the doctors in the practice I go to keeps telling me (in the dream) how the c-section is going to hurt REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. I found out today that will be the doctor performing the c-section!
I am sure I will be over all of this on November 19th (if I survive that is :) )
but never-the-less... please pray for me and my crazy brains!
We have another Ultrasound next week too so we will keep you updated. Hopefully we will get a good picture of our little girl that we can proudly show to you all!
Also, I found another family that has a little girl named Ella who is now 31/2 weeks old. She was also born with an omphalocele. You can see here blog by clicking on this link!
Please pray for their little girl and for a speedy recovery so she can get home!
Hope you are all having a blessed day.

PS Here is a funny video my husband showed me. He is so mean to make fun of good clean Christian music... but it is pretty funny!

I can't believe that the 70's were real.

I just started a new Beth Moore bible study, Stepping Up: A Journey through the Psalms of Ascent (which are Psalms 120-134), through our church and it is already amazing.
The memory verse for this bible study is so timely to what Sam & I have been experiencing with this pregnancy and I just wanted to share them with you.

I raise my eyes towards the mountains,
Where will my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
The maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip,
Your Protector will not slumber.
Indeed the Protector of Isreal,
does not slumber or sleep.
The LORD protects you;
The LORD is a shelter right by your side.
The sun will not strike you by day,
or the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all harm,
He will protect your life.
The LORD will protect your coming and going,
both now and forever.
Psalms 121:1-8

God is our protector.
God is your protector.
God is Madeline's protector.
I just put Madeline's name in where ever it said you or your and it brought me so much comfort.

I have been spending the last month thinking and thinking about how sad I will be that Madeline won't come home with us right away.
Don't get me wrong, I feel blessed because I know sometimes babies never get to come home,
but still, it breaks my heart to know that I will leave that hospital without our baby girl.
But I also know that even when we aren't there that HE is.
That HE will protect Madeline from all harm,
that HE will protect her life.
That is His word and that is our rock.

Both of these pictures were taken at the same spot at the zoo.... just a year apart!
What a difference a year makes!Ava 2007

Ava 2008

Sam and Auntie Emily ran in the 10K (6.2 mi) at the zoo over the weekend!
We are so proud of them. They both worked really hard and they both had great running times! (Sam: 51:17 & Emily:1:02:12)
Afterward we walked around the zoo & we were able to feed the giraffes finally! (Everytime we go they aren't doing it or they are sold out!
Here are some pictures from our day!

That guy wasn't so sure if he should come get crackers!

Ava & Daddy... Do you like Ava's butterfly?

Ava & daddy feeding Raspberry

Raspberry the Giraffe
Ava & Chardo the Giraffe