JiiNou Mommy Diaries – September 14, 2017
We spent the day with JiiNou last week at his new school. He is very happy there, but misses the perks of being home. We took him to immigration to check on his visa status. He needs to stay in Thailand to keep his status active for one month in order to get the student visa. So I will have to stay with him for one month in Thailand since school vacation starts on October 4th – 31st. I have no baby sitter, so I will have to do this.
We took him to see Dr. Wirichai, the neuro/orthopedic surgeon . He noted that JiiNou has lost lots of tone in his body. He will call the school to see if they can increase physical therapy for him. His caretaker has quit, claiming exhaustion. I totally understand…. They are trying to find a new one to replace her. I feel bad, but if she followed my instructions, it would have been easier for her in the long run. SO now his is completely on a diaper and sits in his urine all day…. just like he wants to. I will have to retrain him when he is with me for the entire month. I feel like I have trained this boy 5 times already but I refuse to let him be this way. Surgery will be delayed until he get his body in shape again.
Helping JiiNou has been and continues to be the most challenging thing we have ever done. We just found out his uncle up in Xieng Khouang died in May. He had a very bad stomach ache one day and just died . He leaves a widow with 6 children. He has 5 other kids, hopefully grown. His daughter reached out to us to ask if we can help them put some of the kids in an orphanage, especially one 14 year old girl who is deaf. We will try to help them, but no promises. It is so hard to move children around because the fear of trafficking.
Here are some pictures of his classroom with him learning his colors. It’s a very modern equipped classroom with interactive learning including a monitor in the middle of the room to help the children. Because he needs very special attention, he sits right next to the teacher, a very lovely young lady who is very committed to helping JiiNou. She hovered over him like a mother hen while encouraging the others who can work more independently. He now knows his colors in Thai now and can count. His English is shaky but he still remembers Elmo and Big Bird, so that’s good. When we were about to leave, he did say to be very quietly, “I want to go home…NOW!” I asked him if he was happy here with his friends. He was, but his missed TV. He did tell me his daily routine…waking up, showering, brushing his teeth, dressing and getting ready for school. Only problem was it was in Thai. I told him that we will be back for him in 3 weeks. Don’t worry but he has to be a good boy and work hard. We are still very low on funding, but getting by. All our hard work is finally paying off. JiiNou is finally in school and he looks forward to a brighter future. Now if only I can get him to like going to the toilet.