The high school journey continues.

Kai was home for June and July, but school has started again and he’s back at it, digging into eleventh grade and all that means.

This year our nearly-seventeen-year-old kid has new classes and new teachers. He has a new house and family to live with during the week. His new house is much farther from the school, so he is mastering the transportation system in Chiang Mai, which consists of yellow and red songtaews. Songtaews are trucks with seats in the back.

He will have many more rides to and from Pai on the weekends. Hours of curving roads in a fast-traveling van. This does not deter him.

This tall kid is powerful. When he decides to do something, he does it, disregarding anything in his way. He has grown so much since he started this school journey—actual inches, plus he started playing drums, figured out essays and tests and class schedules, and learned that basketball is not for him. Weights are, though. Kai was our wide eyed baby, our kid who never stopped thinking and learning. Now he is a level-eyed young man, kind and chock full of sense, patient and determined. Also hilarious.

In our wild life, I didn’t imagine that I would have five different kids with five different school journeys (every kid is doing something slightly different this year) but I’m so intrigued and excited by all the learning, mastering, and growing I see in their lives.

Every Friday he comes home to cries of “Kai!” and hugs.

We love him. We miss him. We’re proud of him.

…

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