Family News, Good and Bad

The good news, actually the great news, is that Tony's mom Fran has finally found her sister Barbara, who lived about 10 miles west of New Orleans. Through other relatives, we had heard that Barbara, her husband Fred and their kids were at a hotel west of New Orleans, then a shelter in Baton Rouge, then we heard they were staying with Fred's son's family. Anyways, Fran has been searching for Barbara for the last month and a half, and googled upon a feature article in the Times-Picayune, that ran on Sunday. Fran finally talked to Barbara and Fred in the last two days. Everyone is fine. What a relief. The article "Shelter from the Storm" tells Barbara's family's story since Katrina.

The bad news, actually the sad news, is that we just heard Tony's Great Uncle Chi passed away. We visited with Uncle Chi and Auntie Aiko back in August when we went up to visit them in Washington for our vacation. Uncle Chi was a farmer in Central Washington for many decades. Our condolences to the family, especially Auntie Aiko.


Uncle Chi & Auntie Aiko in 2002
It's been a rough day and I'm exhausted. I think Maiya is teething again--her 7th tooth is showing and her bottom molars are looking kind of swollen with some white things sticking out of the sides. Poor thing... she's fussy, she wants to nurse constantly and barely naps. It's after midnight and she FINALLY just fell asleep. We have a pretty busy day tomorrow. We'll have to play it by ear.