More ups than downs

Here's Robby:

"Your boy. He's 100-percent Thai." I was caught off guard by the comment and my befuddlement must have shown on my face; it's not the kind of thing us Americans tend to randomly blurt out to strangers. So the smiling lady followed up with, "I'm about 25 percent Thai. Many Thais are part Chinese, but your boy. He's all Thai." The nice lady then pointed at his darker skin as proof.

(Side note: the advertisements for skin whitening creams here are pretty amusing given Western culture's obsession with spray on tans and tanning lotions.)

The nice lady's comments at the pool at the Pantip Suites a couple of days ago reminded me that Tut is going to be both "100-percent" Thai, ethnically, but also 100-percent American. He's going to have to learn that that is something to be proud of and a strength.

It all makes me think of another conversation I had with Jonathan, the photographer/writer from Compassion International who went with us to visit our sponsor child Rujira. He talked a bit about his challenges, being born to an American mother and Thai father -- missionaries. He grew up in Thailand and is Thai, culturally, but looks mostly Western and speaks both Thai and English with no discernible accent.

He always imagined he would fit in better in the U.S. Finally, he had his opportunity to go to the U.S. when he attended college at Troy University in Alabama. But he found he didn't feel any more "at home" in the U.S. He had a bit of an identity crisis until he learned more about "third culture" kids (there's a book on the topic I understand). That feeling of not belonging anywhere and difficulty making deep friendships can lead third culture kids to join gangs and all sorts of other negative stuff, so he ernestly urged us to make sure Tut was aware of being a "third culture" kid and that he knew he was not alone.

As Jonathan was describing many of the things that are common among third culture kids and some of the things he felt, a light bulb went off in my head, and I realized I've experienced many of the same things having lived outside of the country, traveling around the world in a sailboat for most of my formative years. I think that will help me relate to Tut later.

Fast forwarding to today, Tut has appeared to turn a corner. While I learned about grief on Tuesday and perseverance on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, today I learned about hope. Katie's got more of the happy details a bit farther below.

I know it's a bit of an overstatement and more than a touch melodramatic -- blame it on the lack of sleep and being emotionally spent -- but I couldn't help seeing the last few days in light of Jesus' last days.

Garden of Gethsemane: Grief

Walk to Golgotha/death on cross: Perseverance

Resurrection: Hope

Just a thought.

Here's Katie:

I would say today was about 50% play and 50% cry, much better than the first few days. This morning when he woke up, he was crying like usual but it wasn't as bad. Closer to a whine cry than an angry one. He stayed that way until we were all up and heading down to breakfast.

This was today's outfit. He may have been crying, but he looked like he belonged on vacation in Hawaii. :) 

At breakfast he did drink some orange juice and eat a little bit of sausage and some raisins and dry cereal. He wasn't crying as hard as yesterday and even managed to stop for a bit while he munched on the raisins. 

We headed down to the kids club area and even though he wouldn't let me put him down, he quietly watched a game of fusbol and some other kids playing for a while. Then we decided to try the pool again. He was as hesitant as before, but then enjoyed splashing and walking between the kiddie pool and the big one. The weather wasn't as good today, but the rain in the morning was light and not a problem if you were already using the pool. We had a good time playing there and he even got comfortable enough to where we had to follow him around. :)

At about noon, we decided to head up to the room for a lunch of leftovers and nap time. Tut slept pretty restlessly last night and still definitely has a cold. I was expecting more crying in the room like usual, but he laughed and played and tore the hotel room apart like any toddler. He ate some food from his food box (see below picture) and played on the bed for a while. I thought he might fall asleep like that, but he got a little fussy so I had to rock him a bit before he was out. He actually slept for about an hour and a half, before waking up cranky. I would think that most toddlers would be cranky when they have to go to sleep and happy to wake up. Tut seems to love sleep and be very unhappy when he hasn't had enough.

He cried to leave the room so we put him in the carrier and walked back down the beach. We saw a few water buffalo herded near the beach and a person on a tractor.

Tut fussed most of the way, but not as badly as yesterday. He didn't want to get down and walk, but after seeing a syringe washed up on shore, I think that was a good thing. When we got back, Robby swam while I stayed with Tut. 

There is a really cool aquarium built into the side of the pool. So you can see Robby in the pool beyond the aquarium. Neat idea.

After running out of things to do around 5pm, we decided to just head back to the room and order room service hoping that Tut would stop crying eventually. On the way up to the room, he calmed down and started having fun as soon as we got to the room. He played and had a fun bath for the first time and was generally happy. 

He enjoyed some chicken satay and food from his box when room service came. The first morning we had breakfast here, they gave me a little to go box with some chicken sausages and stuff in case he wanted to eat later. He had lunch from it earlier and now dinner. It is currently restocked with leftover satay and ready for the next meal. :)

We did FaceTime with my parents and Tut was mostly happy. He was very tired though and fell asleep within 15 minutes of ending the call.

Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok. It will be sad to leave this neat place, but we are ready to get our visa and head home. :)