Meet the Family – June 2019

For June’s Meet The Family, we introduce Kiet and his mother Haewa Trakansook.

“Hello~ Born in summer 2016 is my adorable son, Kiet. During times of various discords between the families of both sides of his parents, Kiet was born. Two years later when our child was diagnosed with a developmental disability, we came to realize how foolishly we as adults lived. Kiet has made our whole family work together as one and us grown-ups now realized how grateful we are for everything we have faced before us. From CIDA’s VAP program, Jiyoung Kim teacher said your child is a touchstone. Hearing this, I realized that Kiet is a very precious child to our family and he gave us the opportunity to ask ourselves about how we live and how we should live from now on.

Truth be told, while raising Kiet I’ve asked myself, “Why are these problems being put on to me? Did I do something wrong?” and slowly was becoming distressed. After starting early intervention and while receiving therapy, my child’s aggressive, self-injurious behavior did not go away for a while and because of this I would often go to the emergency room. One time, his knee was broken and even while painfully crawling on his legs he could not express that he was hurting. Seeing this, I held my son tight and said “Please don’t die. Let’s stay alive. If you do, I will carry you no matter what and move forward with a tough mind.” Before this, I was overwhelmed with my own problems so I wasn’t able to sympathize with another person’s pain, but since then I’ve seen my child as just my own child and have stopped comparing and measuring my own happiness/unhappiness with other people’s happiness/unhappiness. Even up till now, Kiet’s sister Masuri gives up so much to match the schedule of Kiet’s therapy sessions and when I see her face with disappointment, it hurts my heart so much. But, our family is trying to get better every day. There’s times when there’s a happier today than yesterday and to have a tomorrow even when it was not an enjoyable day gives me something to look forward to.

If there is one thing I look forward to from CIDA… If I were to compare my studies for the various support my child can get to the amount of happiness from playing in the calm streams, CIDA is clear waters of unknown depth that wraps my whole body with great warmth. I look forward to being able to pass on this joy with more people. There is not more that I wish for from CIDA but rather a Thank You.”