God Provides!

I want to share a miracle that happened to a family that attends our church.  We prayed for this baby last Sunday after church.

Sylvia is the church secretary and her husband comes early and sets up on Sunday mornings.  Needless to say, they are a lot of help for the church.

They had a baby while Shannon and I were in the states this last year.  The baby was premature and had some issues.

They found out a couple of weeks ago that there was something wrong with his head.  Something about his skull closing up too soon.  Therefore his head wasn't growing correctly.  Anyway, they had seen three doctors who all said the same thing, that Samuel (baby's name) needed surgery and it was going to be a serious surgery.  The last dr. that they saw wanted them to go see the top pediatric neurosurgeon in the country and get his final opinion.  God opened the door for them to get in to see him right away.  They took all the diagnostic exams with them and he looked them over and said that the baby's head wasn't developing correctly because of him being premature and that it could be fixed with the use of a helmet.

Here's the kicker, the only place where they could get the helmet was from the US and it was going to cost them $4000.  Now $4000 might not be a lot to you but it was a lot to them, heck it would be a lot for me, this wouldn't be covered by any insurance, just straight out of pocket.  Let me add in here that minimum wage here is about $300 a month.  It may have went up some while we were gone but I'm not sure.  I just want you to get the whole picture.  The dr. made some phone calls while they were there and said, "The helmet will be here in 15 days at NO cost to you."  NO COST!!!  How awesome is that?  So not only does the baby not have to have surgery but God provided the helmet at no cost.

Here's Sylvia and Samuel.

In other news:
I've still been busy doing things around the house just trying to make it like I want it.  I decided that if I was going to live here for four years that I should make it like I want it. We love our apartment and we love having a little yard.  There is just something about being able to get some sunlight that makes you feel so much better.  One of my favorite places is in the hammock in the backyard.  I lay out there a few minutes everyday.

We finally have curtains!!!  We have a guy that goes to our church that makes curtains and he did a great job.  I could not do his job because it's scary.  (so if you live in Quito and need curtains, I know a guy)

And here is a just because picture.  I took this pic of a lady begging at the market in Otavalo when Angelia and Jackie were here.  

Prayer request:
Shannon is leaving tomorrow to go to Cuenca for a meeting and he's going to pick up our STL car.  We are praying that we don't have any major issues with it since it hasn't been driven in over a year.

And one of the most important prayer requests that we have is our visas.  We are still on tourist visas and they will expire Nov. 6th.  We are still waiting on our lawyers for some paperwork and then we will go "apply."  Please pray that this happens soon and the actually visa process will go smoothly.