This message was emailed to my son, Cameron. To date, I have only received one response from him, via email. That was to thank me for a Christmas present, sent in February of this year. I am posting an update message I sent to him here, in hopes that he will read it, as I cannot reach him via phone or email at this point. I call, but nobody answers. I write, but nobody responds.

Cameron,

I didn’t catch you at home this week, again, so I decided to send you this message. I want you to know that I’m thinking of you and hope that all is well. For me, it has been a couple of really hectic weeks. Shu Mei found out that she has maternal diabetes and had to spend a week in the hospital. There, the nutritionists put her on a strict diet, in order to get her blood-sugar level under control. As I was on a week vacation between summer and fall semesters, I took care of Billy fulltime. Finally, Shu Mei’s diabetes was deemed as under control, even though she was put on insulin injections, and she came home.

Shortly after Shu Mei arrived home, Billy developed a serious cold. His temperature climbed to 40.4 degrees Celsius and it was back to the hospital for us. There, he was put on intravenous fluids and given some fever-reducing medication. He coughed and coughed, frequently throwing up, and his nose was constantly running. I was very sad to see him in that condition. The areas around his eyes grew dark and he was completely out of energy. I said a prayer, asking Our Heavenly Father, if at all possible, to let Billy’s illness pass from him to me.

Sometimes, we get what we ask for in life. It didn’t happen immediately, but over the space of several days I became ill and Billy started to get well. He still has the lingering cough, but his fever has gone away and he is active again. The color came back to his face and his nose isn’t running quite so bad. As for me, I’m pretty sick. However, I can handle it. I know that I’ll be better within a few days and be able to enjoy an active lifestyle with Billy.

Shu Mei went back to the doctor today, to find out about her diabetes. We have been told that the baby inside of her is over two weeks larger than normal. Therefore, we believe he will be born very soon, as Shu Mei’s due date is about a month away. Billy was pronounced as being two weeks larger than normal at about this same time in the pregnancy and he was born shortly after. Shu Mei is wondering if, because of her diabetes, she will have to spend the rest of the pregnancy in the hospital. We certainly hope not, but that is up to the doctor to decide. She has a really good doctor and we trust his judgment.

Beyond our health problems, everything is going pretty good. I enjoy my job teaching at the high school. The students aren’t the highest academically, as I told you, but they are a lot of fun. I enjoy teaching them. I try to make it as entertaining as possible for them. I feel that the best way to teach them is to try my best to make them interested in the subject, English in this case, and make it fun for them to learn. I remember having had some boring teachers in my life and I learned very little in their classes. On the other hand, I had some interesting teachers that taught me a great deal.

What about you? Do you have any interesting teachers? Please write me and tell me about them. Also, tell me what you’re up to outside of school. What about your friends? Your hobbies? Your dreams? Please let me know what is going on with your life. I do care and am eager to hear from you.

Love,

Dad