9-15-08 Family Reunion

What a day we had.... First of all, Aaron, the boys and I had fun exploring the area... My Japanese is coming back to me even though it was hard to get adjusted to begin with. We started the day finding breakfast on the street, the boys were quickly drawn to McDonald's while Aaron & I wanted Starbucks. We got both and afer breakfast, went to the local market street nearby where English is not really spoken. I found so many great local food that I used to eat as a child and it brought back so many memories. It is so great to share this experience with Aaron & my boys. They are having so much fun learning a few phrases and have been very excited to see all the neat things and asking me a million questions. Aaron has always been great with trying variety of food, so for lunch we had Okinawa Soba, which is made with soba noodles, pork flavored broth and a fairly fatty piece of pork meat. The boys had TACO RICE, which is a Japanese style taco... it's basically tacos over rice (instead of taco shells or tortillas). I had a tofu stirfry :)

After lunch, we took a much needed nap and waited for the reunion to begin. Sheri, (my sister that is one year older than me)& Howie, her fiance' picked us up. Since we were a little early, we drove by where I used to live.... It was so strange to be in the place that I grew up playing... it's funn how everything seems so big when you're a child. Many people are fortunate to have grown up in the same city or state where they spent their childhood and returning is not that big of a deal, but for me, this was the first time I had been back there since I moved out of that area when I was 10 years old. It felt like I had never left, yet those days seemed so long ago like it was part of another person's life. It's a strange feeling.

We got lost trying to find our brother Michael's place, so we waited for my 2nd oldest sister, Deborah to drive up with her son and my mom. As I walked over to my mom to say hello, she looked at Deborah and asked who I was... (since her stroke 2 years ago, she hasn't been quite the same mentally). When Deborah said it was Pamela, she started crying and held my hand really tight. Ofcourse, I started to cry and it made Deborah cry. The evening went on with so many reunions... Marie, my oldest sister showed up with her husband and her son that I had never met, along with her daughter, her husband and 2 children. My brother Michael introduced me to his girlfriend, who was busy hosting the big party. Communication was harder at times with the English/Non Japanese speaking folks, along with the ones that speak both and those that only spoke Japanese. Aaron and the boys did great with meeting everyone.

It was fun to catch up with everyone. Towards the end of the evening, I asked my sister to ask my mom if I could pray for her. She said yes and I prayed with her. As I prayed, tears began to flow and we both cried. I could tell my sisters and brother didn't really know what to do with the crying and the praying that was going on, but in the end, I really just wanted to bless my mom somehow. I didn't want to leave her knowing that perhaps this could be the last time I will see her. Only God knows what was happening in her heart.

It was such an emotional evening. I will see my sisters again before we leave and hopefully my brother too... but I probably won't see my mom again. Typing those words brings tears to my eyes. Only God can do a miracle and that is what I prayed for her lastnight.

I am not sure how much healing is happening with the relationship between my sister and my brother, but I believe it was the beginning. This step was huge and I am so glad that God gave us this opportunity to bring us all back together again.