Ordinary Miracles

This book is an adaptation of its original Mandarin version, 《点点奇迹》 (Dian Dian Qi Ji). The Mandarin version was written from February 2024 to December 2025. After the completion of the Mandarin version, I started working on this English version in May 2026.

Initially, I wrote down passages merely as a means of expressing my feelings during treatments. In the first two months after my leukemia diagnosis, clusters of heavy feelings constantly weighed on me. Words, to me, were a concrete channel for those abstract emotions, allowing me to accept the existence of those tears, fear, and smiles. That fragmented documentation lay in my phone’s notes and eventually became the manuscript or inspiration for passages of this book.

The thought of writing a book came from an overnight conversation between my nurse and me, as documented in the passage “I Am Alive.” That night, after hearing my stories, my nurse told me, “I think you really could write those stories into a book.” I am not sure if this was a kind encouragement or an actual suggestion, yet I was indeed motivated. I had never expected that someone would patiently listen to my stories for hours, yet that indeed happened at that moment. I realized how deeply I was loved.

I started to recall memories since my diagnosis: Mom and Dad trying their very best to seek the most suitable treatments for me, the caring love that transcends time zones and the Pacific from my friends back home, my fellow patient friend introducing me to the book Mere Christianity… Maybe it sounds a bit like an exaggeration right now, yet at that moment, those blessings were so beautiful that they felt surreal. I wanted to pass down the happiness that I experienced through my book.

Therefore, the title of this book, Ordinary Miracles, was decided on. In the ward on the bone marrow transplant floor, I wrote down the passage “Connected” with trembling hands from medicine side effects.

In the first three months after transplant, I felt too exhausted from continuous infections and complications to write. Not until December 2024 did I start writing again, and I eventually finished the book one year later. In the 12 months, my body was completely transformed. As the medicines I took decreased in number, surprisingly, I found that some of the emotions that I had not paid attention to reappeared with greater intensity. Those emotions impacted my narrative tone to some extent. I had tried to return to the tone I started with when I was first diagnosed, yet I failed over and over again.

Eventually, I realized that it was impossible to erase the marks that this journey had left on me. I decided to preserve some of the tone changes in this book, hoping to show my most authentic side to you.

When I started translating the book, my “two-year post-transplant” mark started approaching. Perhaps because of how time has again changed me, I revised, restructured, expanded, or omitted some of the passages in translation. Yet my most candid and sincere voice has not changed.

The artworks in the book were created during various phases of my cancer journey. I drew when I felt happy, sad, fearful, hopeful, anxious, calm… They captured my ever-changing, complex, yet lively state of mind.

During treatment, I was blessed to become friends with other artists like Taylor and Jaiden, who were also navigating their health journeys. Their artworks had given me deep encouragement and healing. Through those illustrations, I hope to pass on the tenderness that once touched my heart to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Thank you for walking my journey with me.