Thanks to all of you, we were able to achieve our crowdfunding goal and it was a very emotional day.
We realized that the schedule we had originally planned would be too tight to make it all the activities, so we made arrangements for an international flight with a few extra days.
I had told my second son the approximate number of days, and when I explained it to him on the calendar, he was shocked and panicked at the unexpected, and his anxiety made him burst into tears, and he himself was desperately trying to calm himself down.
This was exactly the reaction I had been anxious about during the crowdfunding campaign period, but the reaction was 'within my expectations'.
But he has certainly grown.
He was able to calm him down over the course of an hour or so.
In the past, he would have been disgusted and scared not to try it anymore.
Moreover, we were able to watch a YouTube video of Narita Airport together afterward to gain perspective. In advance.
And I told my second son,
'I can't reduce your anxiety to zero, but I can make it smaller, and I promise your mother will make your anxiety smaller.
And my second son nodded his head.
And the next day, he told me that his anxiety was smaller than it had been yesterday.
He was even able to have his passport photo taken for the first time in his life.
I think that there are times when he gets scared of traveling overseas.
But that is also the reality of my second son who has ASD and mild intellectual disability.
At this point, I am proud that he was able to reduce his anxiety.
I think it's really great that he can only fly an airplane.
Even now, through this preparation period, there are a series of firsts for him, but I am sure he will grow from them.
I feel that it is expected that things will not go as planned in the field, so I would like to make this a meaningful trip while maintaining a good balance with the members accompanying us