Not home for 13 years

Wendy Lane Urian Start Date: Jul 21, 2023 - End Date: Oct 28, 2023

My Travel Story

by: Wendy Lane Urian Start Date: Jul 21, 2023 - End Date: Oct 28, 2023
My name is Wendy and I am living in the Philippines and I grew up with my grandparents here in a small city from the south.  Being a single mother as she was before, it was a struggle for her to raise me alone so as early as 3 months I was left with care to my grandparents. We communicated through telephone during my younger years where long distance calls were so expensive. My mother would go home once in 3 years or none. She was able to provide my needs and also married a kind Japanese guy.

During highschool, way back 2005, I had the opportunity to visit my mother in Japan and was able to stay there for a short period of time. I skipped a year or two to study college and stayed there. However, things got so complicated that my family back home here in the Philippines would want me to go home and finish school, which I did and was the greatest decision I had ever made.

I went home 2008 and until now I have not seen my mother, nor she went home here in her hometown. We sometimes video chat but I heard that my mother lost weight and because of the effect of the pandemic lost job and was not able to fend herself and her husband since my step-father is now retired. They are now eating a sunnyside up egg, cut into 4's so that they could still have some for dinner.

I want to visit my mother with my family. She has not seen her 2 grandchildren personally and I was thinking that even for a short period of time she would be happy to spend time with us. I am an only child and it would be memorable for us if we could go visit her.

I am starting this fundraising so that I could bring some food to my mom and dad in Japan, visit them for a short while and spend time with them. I know this would be a very expensive travel but it would really mean a lot to us. It would require us to get visas to the Japanese embassy and plane ticket from here to Manila would be very expensive. There are 4 of us in the family right now and I am relying on your kind hearts if you could grant us this one wish for this year. I know we have been through a lot because of the pandemic but we would be very grateful if we could go see our family for a short perios of time.

Thank you very much.