Something new – a guest post from my mom! Recently she mentioned that I hadn’t blogged in a while so I offered her a chance to write a guest blog, and she did a great job! Here is her post:
In June of 2003, Ray and I went to Los Angeles airport and saw Bryan off on what we thought would be a three year job/adventure teaching and living in Japan. He left belongings in storage and in our attic. Little did we know that he would find the love of his life and decide to make his home permanently there in Japan.
When he was first in Japan, we had limited ways to communicate with him. Not knowing what he was doing, how he was feeling, was he sick or well, happy or homesick was a real challenge for a mom to deal with. We finally found a long distance phone plan that wasn’t too expensive. The first month our phone bill was over $200 when the plan didn’t kick in right away. After some time, we were able to figure out the time differences and managed to talk once a week if he was home when we called. I don’t remember what his phone situation was at the time, but we didn’t want to run up a big long distance bill on his phone, so we tried to call.
The other way we got news from Bryan was his decision to keep up a blog every day. This was something new for us, but since day one of his blogging, I have been so grateful to him for writing almost every day, for his writing skills, and for his desire to have a written record of his time in Japan. The blog has kept us informed, kept me from worrying so much about what was or was not happening to him, and did provide so much insight into his life there. The blog was where we also first heard about Kuniko. In 2005, Kuniko became our daughter-in-law and we first visited Japan.
Over the years, we have become resigned to the fact that they will always make their home in Japan. We have been lucky enough to be able to visit them, meet a lot of their friends and family, and to make new friends ourselves. Knowing how much they love each other, we are grateful that he has such a loving wife to share his life. They have a wonderful circle of people to give them love and support.
Now, after he has spent almost 16 years in Japan, I have to say that I am so grateful for the amount of changes made in the technology and communications industry. Instead of waiting for one day a week to talk to Bryan and Kuniko, if I think of something I want to tell them or a question for them, maybe a book or movie recommendation, news about a friend, I just text on my cell phone (trying to always be aware of the time difference) and I get an answer right away. The immediacy of that answer is so reassuring. It has made a world of difference when there have been earthquakes and other disasters to be able tohear right away that they are alright. Blogging, texting and messaging, talking on the cell phones, facetime, skyping, even sending pictures back and forth…all have made the world a smaller place for me. For this technology I am very very grateful.
