THANK GOD!

     What a great surprise we had last night! I was looking through Facebook, commenting to and connecting to my acquaintances, when I saw that my sister-in-law, Hitomi in Japan, commented on one of my posts. I answered and thought that that was the end of our give-and-take. Suddenly there was a ring tone coming from my laptop and the caption said that Hitomi wanted to connect with me by a video call! I was delighted and flustered: I've never done it on Facebook. We talk with my sister on Skype all the time, but - on Facebook - never!
                                       
                                                                                         This is Hitomi
     To make the long story short, we did connect on the computer screen. She looks just as young as the last time I saw her - about 7-8 years ago. She lives with her family in Yokohama, Japan. 
     Usually, when she calls, Hitomi gets embarrassed by her lack of knowledge of English and asks me to call Taka. This time she initiated the conversation and kept at it with me for a long time. We were both very happy to, finally, talk. There's been something between our families (mostly, her parents and us) that prevented them from communicating with us all these years. I just told you about it in my story of our travels to Japan. 
     After about half an hour, Hitomi hit the wall with her English. She asked me to call Taka. Usually, that would've been the end of my participation in a conversation with her, but last night Taka sat down next to me on an arm of the couch in front of the laptop and we tried to keep it going. The two of us were so keen on it, or I should say that the atmosphere in our small living room was so greatly focused on the laptop and on what was happening that, I guess, even the cats perceived it. They both came and tried to insinuate themselves into the scene by climbing on us and rubbing the computer until it began to titter on my little table. When we, largely, ignored them, they lay down next to the couch and kept an eye on the proceedings.
     Taka recently had some work done on his teeth. It's still a work in progress, because the dentist took out a couple of his front teeth, and Taka is waiting for a dental bridge to be put there. His sister, doing her sisterly duty, of course, couldn't fail to tease him about it and call him "ogii-san", or a grandpa!
                                                                                                                                                                 
     The thing that was different last night from all the other times when Taka and I were doing things together was that, suddenly I felt like we were together! It felt like that handsome, tall guy at my side was, in fact, my flesh and blood! I hope that he sensed it too! 
     Taka tried to translate what he and his sister were talking about, but it was hard, so I let him sit down comfortably on an armchair and turned the screen fully toward him. I still loyally listened to their Japanese (and understood some of it) but, at last, lost the battle and dozed off. Taka woke me up an hour later (!) and asked how to turn the call off. Hitomi was on the screen; she and I exchanged our goodbyes and good wishes for our extended families and I clicked the little x in the corner of the call's window. 
     Thank you, my Heavenly Parents! I see a positive change in my life, and am very inspired by it!