Cristy’s latest e-mail.  (Thanks for praying)

Dear friends,
The Lord is hearing your prayers and has been so good to us!!  We really feel blessed!!  Praise the Lord!!
Cullen Rast (a retired missionary from Cuiabá) picked us up at the airport and brought us to his house.  He said they were glad to have us stay with them.  He even is willing to take us around to the hospital and other places.  Praise the Lord for that! 

Short version:
The doctor saw Benjamin this morning and looked at all his test results and didn’t really know what the problem was. 
She asked for more blood and urine tests to be done. 
We will probably do an MRI or some kind of test to see the nodules on his liver this week.
We are scheduled to return to see her again next Tuesday. 
We don’t know yet if/when they will do a biopsy.

Long version:
We got up at 5 this morning in order to leave at 6 for the hospital.  (Cullen drove us there.  He knows São Paulo really well and didn’t get lost at all getting to the hospital—even though he had never been there before!) It took us about an hour and a half to get there. 
The hospital is a beautiful place—even has vallet parking.  Everyone was so nice and helpful. 
We went to the floor where the pediatric liver specialists were.  There were many other parents with little children and babies in the waiting room.  One man asked if Benjamin had a certain liver disease that required a liver transplant—that got me a little woried. 
We were called in to see the doctor pretty soon.  She asked us many questions about Benjamin and our family medical history.  She was happy that Benjamin is a healthy baby otherwise...is very alert, eats well, sleeps well, etc.  She said that his liver felt good.  She asked us to do about 15 different blood exams and a urine test (culture).  Then she kept the ultrasound of his liver (that showed the nodules) and was going to talk it over with some other doctors.  She asked us to come back to see her next Tuesday. 
She had wanted to see the color of his poop, but when she checked his diaper it was only wet.  So, later on, he filled his diaper, and I took it to her to see the color.  She looked at it and said, “É lindo (it’s beautiful)!”
She does want an MRI or another test of that kind on his liver, but we are waiting to find out when that can be scheduled—hopefully this week. 
We imagine that they will want to do a biopsy of the nodules, but we are not sure yet if that is for sure and when that will be.

Another praise:
We found out that we can apply for Benjamin’s US passport here in São Paulo.  We have all the documents with us for that.  We got his pictures taken, so we are going to try to make an appointment for tomorrow.

We feel so blessed by the many, many people praying!!! Thankyou so much!!!!  God is so good!!!

With love,
Erik, Cristy and Benjamin

Copied 10/4/07 from Cristy:

To many special people,
We wanted to let you know that we now have TWO American citizens in our household.  This morning we were able to get Benjamin’s American birth certificate and apply for a passport at the consulate here in Sao Paulo.  It took us about 2 hours, but we had no problems.  Erik is always very prepared when doing document work—he had everything that we needed!  PRAISE THE LORD!!!
We continue to wait on the results of the exams.  We haven’t heard anything from the doctor these days.  I do have a specific prayer request.  The doctor’s told us that they would request an MRI or “specialized ultrasound” this week to check on the nodules, but they have not scheduled it yet.  My prayer is that we can have that done before Tuesday.  (My mom leaves on Wednesday—probably—so it would be so nice if we had some more answers before she left.  She has been such a blessing and big help to us here!)
Another request:  my mom, Erik and I are fighting a cold and Benjamin has started to cough some too. (Maybe because of the cold weather here.) Pray that he will be healed of this cold and that it won’t effect any exams that we still need to do. 

We continue to feel the power of your prayers.  And we continue to be amazed at how many people are praying for us!  What a BLESSING. Thank you. 
We’ve been reading a book at the dinner table called “My Heart’s Cry for More” by Anne Graham Lotz.  We read about two prerequisites for answers to prayer:  we must ask and we must ask in His name. 
“My mother has siad that if there are any tears shed in heaven, they are going to be shed over all the ansers to prayer for which no one ever bothered to ask!  What blessing is God waiting to give you, but you haven’t asked Him for it?”
“I wondre, how many times have I been hurt by something God did ont do for me, yet in reality, I never asked?  Jesus said we are to ask if we want to recieve.”
I was blessed by reading this and am (along with many others) asking the Lord to HEAL Benjamin!!!

We sense your love through your prayers,
Cristy, Erik and little Benjamin