I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
Psalms 63:4

I am a Christian. I am a Christian that believes that if we give ourselves over to Gods plan we will prosper, there will always be hard times but those hard times mold us into better people and followers of Christ.

I believe 110% that God has a plan for my family here in Bangkok. I was 110% sure it was to help other people and work at the orphanage. I am so grateful for all of our friends and family that purchased scarves to help raise funds for the orphanage when we first arrived. This was something I prayed over and God blessed that project with a donation of over $3,600 USD. I now see that this is and will probably be the only work I do with the orphanage while in Bangkok and you know it might be all they needed of me.

I now see my reason for following my husband to Bangkok and following Gods call here was to be the mother that I could have never have been in the US. I know there are moms that can do this but I personally could not have balanced work, home life and the needs of my special child. This is why I am here in Thailand, a world away from everything and everyone I know, to get my son the best help money can buy from the best professionals here in Bangkok! Listen to this amazing display of divine intervention that took place this weekend.

When at therapy on Friday, I was asking the doc what I should do about swim class. Let me back up a little, when we first arrived in Bangkok I signed Killi up for every activity and class you can think of for the simple reason that we needed human contact. We were taking classes at Little Gym, which he loved but could not follow directions. He just ran around like a fool playing. They are so kind there and would tell me not to worry kids will be kids. We would do playgroups and as you know play groups are structured and again this didn’t work for my son, he refused to do activities and it was really just more stressful than enjoyable for either of us. We also signed up for swim class at Bangkok Dolphins.

My son grew to love the pool and swim class then all of a sudden it all went to hell in a hand basket. Swimming class turned into a huge stressful disaster of Killi fighting the activities and just wanting to run around the pool and he just didn’t want to participate with what they had planned… Again another structured activity that my special boy would not cooperate with. We moved to the Saturday class with teacher Tom so that Chris could be in the pool because it was honestly to much for me to handle after an entire week of our normal (pre therapy) tantrums and stress. It went a little better but he still fought us in the pool. Incase you were thinking, no it’s not that he was afraid of the pool or water it is simply because of his special needs and how he needs a different structure and direction than other children.

Okay back to what happened this weekend. When asking our doc about swim lessons, he suggested to stop all lessons of any kind until we get Killi to where he needs to be to actually participate in structured play. I was a little bummed since he loves the pool, it’s a great time to see our friends and I had already paid…

We go to class on Saturday and I am already stressing out because I have to do the class with Killi because of Christopher’s broken finger (he can’t get his splint wet). We get in the pool and I basically lay it all out for teacher Tom. (Why keep our situation a secret? My kid has special needs and I don’t care who knows it, we aren’t ashamed or too proud to ask for help and neither should you-you never know how someone can help you!) I explain how my son is on the autism spectrum, our doc says this structured play could hurt our efforts and I ask if we can come back next term when the doc says it is okay. Teacher Tom smiles and says he is trained to work with autistic children! He was and is a special needs teacher and has had extensive training in how to structure the play to enhance our therapy that we are already doing. He knew all about what we were currently doing with our ESDM therapy, how to make Killi want to be in the pool with giving him what he wants and still getting in the lesson.

He sets up the rest of the class with the lesson and comes and grabs Killi and we begin our lesson, which is doing the same activities but in a less structured way that keeps my son happy and engaged to where he doesn’t want to leave the pool. This was the first class we have been to where my son was happy, he didn’t cry and he participated! Teacher Tom is going to work on a special lesson plan for my son and it will be one that we can continue in our pool at home to help him maintain the routine that will greatly help our therapy efforts!

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that God set this all up for a reason with us switching swim class to the weekend and in turn being with teacher Tom. He is putting the perfect professionals for the job on our path to help my son succeed! (Tell me you don’t have goose bumps right now!)

I went home and cried my eyes out. These were tears of joy. I sobbed and thanked God for this amazing gift. At times I wish I was home but then I realize that if I were home we would have missed all of this. My son would have slipped through the cracks at daycare, while I was at work and we would have caught all of this to late. I made a promise to God through my tears that I would always praise him in the good and in the bad. This weekend was good and I am forever grateful.

Keep praying for us! Excited to see what week 5 holds for us!