For the LOVE of Japan

Patty, Andy, Drew, and Ben Breun

My sister, Patty loves Japan!  She has loved Japan for most of her life.  When I was only 12 my sister went to be a foreign exchange student there.  Before going to Japan, Patty was all about music, gymnastics, France, fashion, and friends.  When she came home from Japan she was ALL about Japan.  She could speak fluent Japanese.  She knew so much about their culture and had adopted some of it into her own life.  Friends of hers from Japan came to our home to visit us and they all loved our Patty.  Patty had people in Japan who loved her like "family."  Patty went back to Japan to be a nanny in Tokyo one summer.  After getting married, she and Andy went to Japan for a few years to live and teach English.  My oldest nephew, Drew, age 13, was born in Japan!  They came back to America when he was about 6 months old.  Then about 12 years later they decided they wanted Drew and Ben, age 10, to experience this Japan that had so shaped their mom.  Patty, Drew, and Ben went to Japan and planned to live there for two years.  Andy flew back and forth for visits, but had to hold down their home in America.  Drew and Ben loved Japan too!  What fun for Patty to see her boys enjoying Japan and discovering so many things that she already loved about this place.  Drew and Ben made good friends in Japan and became quite fluent in Japanese as well. 
      In September of 2010, I decided I wanted to go visit Patty and her boys and experience some of Japan too!  So, we made plans for my spring break coming up in March of 2011.  I was going to be gone 17 days - enough days to get over jet lag and truly have time to enjoy and explore!  It was going to be exactly the same time that Patty, Drew, and Ben had their break too.  I was even going to be there for the first day of the new school year on April 8th!  I was going to get to watch the boys in their school assemblies and ceremonies.  I was going to get to see where Patty taught.  Patty had so many great plans of things we'd do together.  After buying my ticket, my favorite thing to think about, was going to Japan!
     Then, on March 11th, the earthquake and tsunami happened.  Suddenly nothing much mattered anymore except finding out if Patty and the boys were safe.  From 7:45 a.m. until past midnight I had no idea if they were even alive.  We had figured out around noon that the boys and Patty would have been together in the same school, so that was a huge relief, knowing they were most likely together. Also, a friend of mine who lives in Oregon and has family in Japan, sent me an email letting me know that there were lots of emergency shelters set up in the city where Patty and the boys were.  That gave us hope.   A little after midnight, the Japanese Embassy called Andy to tell him that Patty and the boys were safe and in a shelter.  Andy called us and we were all so relieved and thankful!  I felt so joyful.  I wanted to cry!  I slept much more peacefully after that.  I imagined Patty, Drew, and Ben together in a clean, big, crowded room with blankets around them.  I woke up that next morning with such a sense of hope and relief, that it's hard to describe.  Patty, Drew, and Ben were going to be okay.  God had watched over them.  It was so wonderful being able to send out a new message to my Facebook friends, church friends, and school friends, letting them know all three were safe and in a shelter.  The emails and messages just flooded in.  So many people had been praying.  It was touching.   
    Andy flew to Japan to bring his family home.  He didn't know where he would find them.  He didn't know how he was going to get around.  But, even if he had to walk from shelter to shelter, he would find them!  Thankfully, while Andy was still on the airplane, Patty was able to use the phone of an Australian reporter and call Mom and Dad to tell them she and the boys were back in their apartment and were safe.  They and their neighbors were together, taking turns using their kerosene heaters.  Andy called Mom and Dad not long after Patty had called and they could tell him where Patty and the boys were.  I love how that all worked out!  After Andy got to Patty and the boys, they walked and hitchhiked for hours and hours up to Northern Japan where eventually they flew to Seoul, Korea and then to San Francisco, CA and finally to Minneapolis, MN.
    What a joyful reunion that was!  My whole family and some of Andy's family all met at a hotel in Minneapolis on the evening of the 23rd (the night before I was to fly to Japan!).  It was so nice to have time to be silly and goofy with Drew and Ben and give lots of hugs.  It was so nice to see Patty and hear her answer our millions of questions.  It was sooo good to know they were safe.  I am so thankful they are okay!  I'm so thankful my sister can still be part of my life.  I never want to take her for granted.  I'm glad God gave her and her family the opportunity to survive and continue touching people's hearts and lives.    
     I am writing this on April 11th, the day after I would have returned home from my trip to Japan.  I grieve the loss of the opportunity to spend that time with Patty, Drew, and Ben.  I yearn for vacation time just with them.  But, the cancelled trip doesn't matter when everything is put into perspective.  My loved ones are okay.  God is good.  Perhaps someday Patty and I will go visit Japan together.  I know Patty and her family will always have a piece of their hearts in Japan.

Patty, Andy, Drew, and Ben in Japan