“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” Proverbs 16:9
We’re done!!!
No more babies, that is. Since last Christmas, the last and final
Scharrer baby was welcomed into our family.
Torsten S Scharrer was born on August 28th (our 8th
wedding anniversary) at 10:01 pm, weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches
long. Although a scheduled C-section was
planned, God had different ideas. When
scheduling the C-section, Kara told her doctor that the only day she didn’t
want to have a baby was on August 28th. Well, Kara went into labor on August 28th! With knowing that a VBAC after three previous C-sections was nearly impossible, Kara prayed that she would be fulfilled with whatever happened with Torsten's birth. Never did we expect her to go into labor naturally, allowing Kara to not only experience labor one more time, but also experience the surprise of baby coming on his own. Laboring at home, being able to do skin-to-skin contact immediately after T's birth, being the first mom to nurse while being sewn up in the operating room at Mayo, and having that fourth happy, healthy baby that she had been begging Erik for were the highlights of her year.
This wasn't our first lesson in the truth of God’s
planning this year. In January, Erik had
a life-changing skiing accident, paralyzing his left shoulder (while also
breaking his scapula and taking a chunk out of his clavicle). Despite his all-in, go-get-'em attitude, he has unfortunately been out of residency training for the
past year. God has taught us patience and lessons of peace, too. Allowing his body the appropriate amount of time to heal was one of the key factors in getting him back to emergency medicine, which was his ultimate goal, and not having to switch to a less physically demanding specialty. A couple of the nerves have come back on their own, but Erik also had a nerve graft in September where he had 30cm of
a nerve from his left leg transplanted to the damaged nerve (axillary) in his
shoulder. We are still waiting on the
results of the surgery – nerves heal very slowly!
The c-section and nerve graft weren't the only
surgeries our family went through this year.
Skogen got his tonsils out, Summit got neutered, Kara had a minor skin
surgery, and Erik had PRK on his eyes. Luckily
Kara’s mom and dad pitched in a whole lot to help hold the fort down when we
were in and out of the hospital. The
kids love their Grandma and Bumpa and now think it is totally normal to have
them visit at least once a month!
Maida turned five on May 3rd and
started kindergarten this year. She continues
to impress us with her ever-growing intelligence and her very vivid imagination! She got her ears pierced in October and is
excited to switch out her earrings for the first time from the sparkly pink
flower studs to the blue sparkly dolphins when we visit Winter, the dolphin
from the movie, “Dolphin Tale,” when we are vacationing in Florida over
Christmas*.
Skogen has really grown over the past year. He turned three on January 14th
and is in his second year of preschool and has a wonderful teacher. He started soccer with Maida this year and
they both continue to be two of the highest scorers on their team. Skogen has his Daddy’s passion for most
things, like skiing, and also enjoyed a weekend at Flaming Pine Youth Camp
being a manly man with Erik during the Father/Son Retreat.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes for Klaasen
this year was becoming a big brother! He
turned two on July 27th and has always been the baby, so we were
unsure of how he’d handle this. To our
surprise, Klaasen has accepted his new role very well and continues to try to
keep up with his older brother and sister in every aspect of life. He can’t wait to start preschool and soccer
and recently potty trained in a day, thanks to the encouragement from his
siblings. In fact, cheering for each
other in public restrooms still occurs regularly.
We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones
doing well and looking forward to 2013 as much as we are. Erik will be starting residency again in
January, Kara will be taking over Erik’s role in our ski racing league, Maida
and Skogen are going to take off their training wheels, Klaasen is going to
start preschool, and Torsten will be on skis 12 months from now. We love hearing from our friends, so keep in
touch. Always check back to the blog to
see what the Scharrers have been up to! We are excited to see what God has in store for our family.
Erik's blog posts about his injury:
6. Good news!
7. Surgery day
Other notable happenings in 2012:
* UPDATE: I apologize for the delay in getting this out since most of our cards were sent before Christmas. We made it to Florida, our first trip south for Christmas ever! We exchanged the white ski slopes for the white sand of Fort Myers Beach and enjoyed the sun burns, in place of the wind burns. :) We made lots of memories there and plan to post pictures and stories soon!
