As many of you I’m sure are already aware of the earthquake in Japan, please continue to pray and support Japan in this hard time. It has been a challenging past few days for me, but it cannot compare to those most personally impacted by it IN Japan. I know it will continue to be a struggle for the people all over Japan, but especially in the areas hardest hit. I personally have friends and people I love and am very close to in Japan after spending time there. I was just in Sendai last summer. I couldn't contact one of my friends who lived in one of the northeastern areas for over 24 hours, and neither could his girlfriend. It was incredibly terrifying. Fortunately everyone I know is safe now, and I did hear that friend's family is safe, but I have a friend who lost someone.
I am wanting to do my part and I am hoping you can too. Please continue to keep Japan in your prayers, and donate to charity as well.
**EDIT-I posted before that I would be offering some artwork for Japan that I'm going to sell to donate towards relief efforts. If you do not feel like personally trusting me with a purchase, I am going to provide a couple of links of great places to donate through, that I know are trustworthy from my experience. However, you can buy my artwork as well as some vintage items from my online shop at
http://lactoseintolerart.etsy.com. Be sure that if you are wanting to donate to Japan, that the item you buy specifies it is for "JAPAN RELIEF" (It will say it in the title)
Here are the other links of how to help:
http://www.worldvision.org-A non profit organization that has always helped in various ways to people in need from around the world. As soon as the situatino in Japan happened, World Vision was sure to respond right away, and they often stay and help after other organizations have left. All of the profits recieved from my "JAPAN RELIEF ART" items will go to World Vision.
http://www.madewithjapan.com -As many of you know I am currently working with Made With Japan through blogging and some other potentially exiting projects soon. Right now the owner is making sure to do his part in providing ways people can give, including purchasing t-shirts from the artists featured on the web site.
http://www.hannaproject.com/-A fairly new organization that has had involvement helping other countries, and has decided to help Japan as well. I personally know the man who is directing the Japan relief division, and I am sure that this will also go to a great cause.
Just remember that healing and recovery in Japan is going to be a long process...So just because things might be "okay" in Tokyo, don't forget about how shook up the nation is, and especially those in the northeastern regions.
This specific illustration was created right before the earthquake, and I had emailed it to one of the people behind www.japanesestreets.com because it was an illustration of a girl from their site. I got an almost immediate response because the earthquake had just happened, and he told me he was heading straight to northern Japan to report on it. Anyway, this is very serious and many people are hurting. Please do not take this issue lightly, and continue to lift up those in Japan and those affected by the situation. JAPAN, we love you.
*For the illustration at the very top of this page, please feel free to use it and spread it around. This was work that I did for Japanese Streets (www.japanesestreets.com) as an image that will go up on their site while they can't update due to the earthquake.
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All in all, we will come home rested, relaxed and ready for life to get crazy hectic all over again. Thanks honey for all you do for me.
