Prayers for Japan

My heart has just been aching as I have seen and heard the horrors of the devastation in Japan.  Japan and its people have always been a special part of my family's lives.  When I was in grade school my dad met a Japanese artist.  This Japanese artist invited my dad to come over to Japan to exhibit his work.  My dad went for a month that summer.  The niece of that Japanese artist was my age, and I got a pen pal.  We faithfully kept in touch for years and after both of us graduated from high school she came out and spent the summer with my family and me.  We had a wonderful time.  Time marches on, and we continued to faithfully keep in touch, I got married, she got married,  I had 4 kids, she has 2 adorable boys the same ages as Miss E and Mr J.  I was very worried about her family, but thankfully I heard from them, and they are okay.  Our Japanese connections don't end there, though.  We had a Japanese foreign exchange student at my dad's college many years ago, and she became close to our family.  Several years ago she came over to the US with her 3 boys who are close to my kids' ages, and spent some time with my family.  My kids loved learning karate from her boys.  It was so fun.  Then a few years ago my mom was accepted to an program that took teachers over to Japan for a month to visit and study.  So both of my parents have been there.  My kids have Japanese pen pals and can count to 10 in Japanese, and we have beautiful Japanese souvienirs that we treasure in our house.  So, we have been very worried about our friends, and thankfully have heard that they are all okay which is such a blessing, but many suffer, and our Japanese friends and their country are in our thoughts and prayers at this time.   May God bless them all in this time of trial and sorrow, but may they know they have friends across the world that love them and pray for them and will send relief in any way they can.