Share a part of your story, write about yourself, be creative, crazy, silly, poetic, whatever - and if you have a blog, be sure to link it too! Then other people can "meet" you, connect to your blog, or just find out something interesting! Wanna participate? I'd LOVE volunteers!! Don't be shy ... let me share my blog-space. Send me a picture, email, whatever.
This week, let me introduce my friend Sharla. If I am jealous of the location of any of my friends, it's Sharla's. I *heart* Switzerland! Read on to find out about her story.
Hi! My name is Sharla Günthardt. I live in Schaffhausen, Switzerland with my Swiss husband and two little boys. Adrian is 5 and Ryan is 2. They keep me busy.
I first met Lisa when she was an exchange student at the European Nazarene College and then really got to know her when she came back to Büsingen to be a volunteer. Between the time Lisa came as a student to the time that she came back again to be a volunteer, I had my first son. Adrian was born on May 30, 2005. It was a great day. He looked perfect. He came into this world with a short little cry and then promptly fell asleep. The doctor assured us all was well and he was handed to my waiting arms. The first two days were filled with normal first time baby things. His first real cry came with his first diaper change and I cried right along with him. The third day of Adrian’s life was the day that changed everything.
On the third day Adrian had a routine check by the pediatrician. He did all the normal checks on him. When the doctor listened to his heart I noticed a slight hesitation on his face. But what ever it was that caused him to pause, disappeared from his face and he moved on to finish the exam. I had a feeling something wasn’t right. He looked at us and said, “I hear a slight heart murmur.” He went on to say a lot of babies are born with murmurs and they usually fix themselves, but he would take an x-ray to put our minds at ease. Off he went with Adrian.
When he came back into the room with Adrian and the x-ray, he didn’t come alone. He came with a second doctor. His next words were, “Adrian’s heart concerns us.” We were then directed to a pediatric cardiologist. He listened and did an ultra sound and then told us Adrian had a hole between the heart chambers that was 7mm wide. The hole would not close on its own and would require open heart surgery around his 6 month birthday. Adrian was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. He seemed stable after a couple of days of monitoring and so we took him home.
With this condition they told us all kinds of things that would and could go wrong with him. He might be developmentally behind, have trouble with weight gain, and he might turn blue (that one made me freak out a little bit). We had to be very careful about him getting sick and so on. But despite all of these predictions, Adrian remained extremely healthy. He was a happy, chubby little baby. Never, ever had a symptom that indicated he had a heart defect.
On November 22, 2005, Adrian had his surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich. I prayed all the way to the hospital for the Lord to heal him. I knew God would heal him one way or the other, but I prayed for divine healing all the way up to the surgery date. God chose to heal him through a surgeon’s hand and He gave us one of the best pediatric heart surgeons in the world. Adrian had a successful surgery. It wasn’t without its complications, but he is a happy and healthy 5 year old. You would never know by looking at him all that he’s been through. We still see the cardiologist each year and can expect a valve replacement some time in his future.
There are a lot of details to this story that I have left out. But the biggest details to the story are the ones where I can look back and see God’s hand. His hand was in every single detail. I will never understand why He allowed Adrian’s heart to develop like it did. But He took care of us and supplied all of our needs.
Thanks, Sharla!
Come by next week for another FFF!
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