Please Pray for Benjamin!

Hello everyone,



First a praise or quite a few...God has been very gracious to us and we want to say a huge thank you to a God who is active and attentive to our lives. From showing us an inefestation of brown recluses at a home we were staying at during our time of transition and thus protecting us from harm to showing me a problem of bursitis in my hip that I am now receiving treatment for. And now I praise God for showing us our little Ben Ben's problem through the insight of my father in law during a visit in May.



While visiting family in May, my father in law expressed concern over Benjamin's toes on both feet. He noticed a slight tendancy for them to cross over the other toe. I somewhat dismissed it but determined to keep an eye on it because at the time we didn't have insurance and it would need to be an issue worth spending alot of personal money over to get it checked out. I determined that when we received medical insurance in July I would have it looked into. When we arrived at our learning center in July I noticed the toes had crossed over even more and concerned me.

Cameron and I took Ben to the orthopedic doctor on Saturday but we were referred to see a pediatric orthopedic today, August 18th. During the appointment they took x-rays and the doctor informed me that he definately needed surgery. Ben will have surgery next Friday and it will be outpatient procedure. Here is the procedure:

The toes in concern are on both feet. They are the toes next to the big toe and are crossing over the middle toes. The x-ray shows all three toes from the pinky toe forward are growing in the correct direction but the concerned toes are growing in the opposite direction and will eventually cross over and cause more severe problems and pain. Since it is a bone structure issue, they will break both toes, place pins into the toes and he will be in leg casts. The healing procedure will be 4 to 6 weeks. Being aware and sensative to our lack of time left in the states he has graciously scheduled Benjamin's post op appt for Monday Sept 27th to check the healing process. If the toes have healed he will remove the casts and we can head home to texas on the 28th. If the surgery does not take we will have to re do the surgery again, requiring another 4-6weeks of healing. So prayer request are as followed:

1. Surgery will be sucessful and the emotional well being of Benjamin. He is a little guy in transition and has to deal with emotions he is unable to communicate. Unfortunately being in leg cast the rest of the time we are here and thus keeping him from enjoying his much loved play ground may cause a few more tears. So please lift his little heart up, God's grace is sufficient even for little guys like Ben =)

2. We would love for Ben's healing to be complete at the 4 week mark so we can come home and visit five sets of parents before leaving on a tenative flight
Oct 11th.

3. We will need to rearrange two sets of immunizations for Ben as his surgery conflicts. I am sure the medical team here will be more than understanding but it does throw a wrench into things.

4. We need to stay an extra week in Virginia even though our schooling will be completed. Once again I am sure that our learning center will possibly accomodate this extra time but we can't ask anyone until the morning. It will also be kind of sad being the only family left at the learning center because it is the body of Christ being around you everyday that makes it so enjoyable. And knowing that we were previously planning on being home as soon as our learning center was over kind of makes us sad but we definately wouldn't want it any other way.


Thank you so very much for praying for Benjamin and our family!

In His grip,

The Phillips Family