Safe and Sound

Since we've had messages from friends and family the past few days after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, I wanted to let everyone know we are fine here. The earthquake occurred about 3,500 miles away from us so we felt none of the tremors. Additionally, Singapore's location makes it safe from experiencing a tsunami. At least that's the official word from the government and we certainly hope they are correct.

While we are safe and sound here, our thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people who are dealing with unimaginable destruction. Between the flooding in Brisbane in January, the earthquake in Christchurch last month and this disaster, our region has been dealt serious blows recently.

Elizabeth told me all about the earthquake when she arrived home from school yesterday as she has two classmates with families living in Japan. Singapore American School just announced a fundraising campaign for relief efforts that will begin when the students return from Spring Break. I predict the school community will surpass the goal of $80,000.

Our entire family enjoyed our holiday in Japan so much that we had already talked about returning next Christmas to visit Tokyo and the mountains again. The Japanese people and their amazing culture made our trip memorable and it saddens me to think of what the they are enduring right now. I hope we can contribute our tourism dollars there again in the near future. For now, we'll have to settle for donating to the Red Cross.

In the meantime, we depart tomorrow night for New Zealand's South Island for Spring Break and while our flight from Singapore will initially take us to Christchurch, we will immediately continue on to Queenstown to stay out of the way of recovery efforts there. I'm excited to experience the awesome beauty of New Zealand and hopeful that Mother Nature will give this part of the world a break for awhile.