A Tiny Burst of Joy

Hospitals aren’t known for their dance floors but in the middle of the constant beeping monitors and sterile walls, I caught my son dancing in a tiny rebellion against his difficult circumstances.

We’ve noticed that music has an almost magnetic pull on him. It’s not entirely surprising. I studied piano for 25 years and play both guitar and drums. His grandfather on my side was self-taught on multiple instruments, and on his mom’s side, he has an uncle who’s a well-known musician in the monkhood. We have several musical instruments in the house so when he comes home he can mess around and discover what speaks to him most.

Language Development

I’ve written before about the challenges of raising a child in a bilingual household, but Archer is picking up a lot more than I expected. His mom got him a big box of flashcards—each one featuring a different food or animal. Lately, he’s come up with his own little system where he hands a card to his mom, who tells him the word in Thai, then passes it to me so I can say it in English. What’s impressive is that he can now find the right card when we say a word in either language. Now, I just need to figure out how to encourage him to start saying the words himself. If you have any suggestions or personal experience with this, please drop a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Health Updates

Sorry to be a bit graphic for a second.. Archer is off antibiotics but still dealing with blood in his poop sometimes. It’s not all the time and only a small amount but I can see it’s giving the doctors a headache. It’s giving me a headache too.

Their current strategy seems to be to wait until it happens regularly, or another symptom presents itself. This is one of those times I need to let go and trust the doctors, which is hard given his history, particularly in this hospital where he almost died twice. The worry keeps me up most nights though.

House Construction

The house is coming along but we’re racing incoming storms at the moment. By the time you’re reading this hopefully the floor has been concreted and dried before the rain hits.

You may be thinking ‘that’s a small house’ but we don’t have a lot of money because of what we’ve been dealing with the past two years and this is really all we need anyway. It’s so hot here we’ll be spending most of our time outdoors plus Archers spent the first two years of his life in a small indoor space so I think he’ll want to run around outside as much as possible too. We can always add another room later if we need to.

Looking Forward

Some days, watching Archer dance in his hospital room or meticulously organize his flash cards, I'm struck by how resilient children can be. Despite the medical setbacks and the cramped temporary living situation, he is almost thriving in his own way. The road ahead still has its uncertainties, and you can probably tell I’m still anxious about his future.

We're watching his health condition carefully but through it all, those little moments like catching him swaying to a rhythm only he can hear in the middle of a hospital ward remind me that even in challenging circumstances, there's still room for joy.

Thank you all for following our journey. Your support means more than you know.