Goodbye 2023

In a sentence, 2023 was challenging, but it also left long-lasting, wonderful memories.

If you read my year-end take on 2022, you’d already know how that year ended for us with a significant health scare — our then 13-month-old baby boy was in and out of the ICU a couple of times.

His fragile health continued to haunt us for most of 2023. But we had a great time, too.

Let’s start with a high note.

2023: An eventful year

We started the year by taking a last-minute week-long vacation in late January. It was our oldest daughter’s 7th birthday, and most importantly, we wanted a real break from up-to-then a very harsh COVID-19 time, plus the cold weather.

We found a last-minute Airbnb availability in Haleiwa and some good deals on airfares from OAK. And off we went. And we had a great time. Almost entirely a great time.

We took the kids to the Battleship Missouri, visited our favorite Byodo-In Temple temple, swam in the ocean and played with the sand literally every day, and ate lots of local street food — I’d recommend the coconut shrimp.

The week passed by like a dream. During the entire time, we always had the little boy’s health in the back of our minds, but as the vacation progressed, things only seemed better. In fact, the little guy had the best time. I even took him and his older siblings multiple snorkel rides in shallow waters, and we saw lots of fish and a few turtles. Lots of laughter and zero tears.During our last dinner on the island, surrounded by happy and healthy kids, my wife told me (or maybe it was I who told her), “Looks like we made it”. We opened a nice bottle of wine to celebrate, and I finished it before going to sleep at 1 am, thinking, “Yeah, we made it! And we totally deserved it.”

There was no rush. We didn’t have to check out of the place until 11 am, and our flight back home was at 1 pm. The airport is just an hour away.

It was another last-minute thing

Alas! We celebrated too early. At 4 am that night, possibly right in the middle of my REM cycle, my wife woke me up. It happened again!

Out of the blue, the little boy struggled to breathe. The nebulizer and inhalers we brought along didn’t help. We had no choice but to take him to the ER — for the third time within four months.

The closest hospital was in Honolulu, over an hour away. We got up, packed the rental car, moved the sleepy big kids to the back seats, and drove to the Kapiʻolani Medical Center.

It was the most brutal hour-long drive. I was so tired and sleepy that my eyes were blurry. To make matters worse, upon getting up, I grabbed my glasses in a hurry and smeared the lenses with my fingers. But we managed to get there at around 5:30 am.

As my wife and the little boy were rushed to the ER, I was left with a dilemma: the facility wouldn’t allow the other two kids to stay by themselves in the waiting room, and I couldn’t leave them in the car in the parking lot, and there were a couple of things my wife needed from the vehicle. That’s not to mention the kids themselves were really tired. It was chaotic.

Fortunately, at one point, a nurse offered to watch the kids for a few minutes so I could get a couple of things done, including figuring out the logistics of what to do next.