Seven-eighths

Many of our blog readers know that Chris’ brother, Casey, is stationed with the Navy in Japan. He lives there with his beautiful wife of three years, Elvie, and his 12-year-old stepson, Shin-ya (pronounced SEEN-ya).

They live in Atsugi, which is in the southeast part of Japan, about 20 miles southwest of Tokyo (at the crook if you look at the island of Japan as a letter “J”). So thankfully they escaped all of the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami nearly three weeks ago. They felt a 5.4 earthquake, but didn’t experience any damage or injuries on their base.

But in the ensuing aftermath of the disaster, the military decided to allow families to voluntarily evacuate and temporarily return to the United States as a precaution. Military personnel were moved to safer locations (Casey currently is with his crew in Guam), and their families who opted for the evacuation were flown to the west coast of the United States. Then they could travel to meet up with family in other parts of the country or stay on the west coast until they decided to return to Japan. No one was in any danger, but it was an opportunity to let the families feel safer by moving home for a short while.

Elvie and Shin-ya left Japan around 9 a.m. Indiana time last Thursday and arrived here about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, following an overnight stay in California on Thursday. After more than three years, we finally got to meet our sweet sister-in-law and nephew. And seven-eighths of the Clarks were together. (The three Japan Clarks were already planning a trip here in early April, so we were glad two of them came a few weeks early!)

I was nervous about how Avery would handle the situation. She can be apprehensive around strangers and often takes awhile to warm up to someone. We talk enough about Casey, Elvie and Shin-ya that I hoped she would see them and treat them as her family.

She quickly latched on to Shin-ya, probably because she loves kids so much. It also helped that he had some new toys she could play with. But the feeling was mutual. Shin-ya enjoys playing with her as much as she does with him. She gives him hugs and kisses and begs him to play “dollhouse” or “ball.” I love seeing them interact with each other. It’s like they’ve always been together! We all have had a lot of fun talking, eating and playing together. We’ll share pictures in another post.

But we got some very good news this week. Originally, the military said that all leaves were cancelled and would be approved on a case-by-case basis. Since Casey already had a leave approved prior to the earthquake, his supervisors agreed to let him take his leave as scheduled. He’ll arrive late in the evening on April 4 and will go back to Guam on April 14. But for 10 days, all eight Clarks will be together for the first time ever!