I can't help but sit at the computer and search for article after article, picture after picture, trying to understand the trauma they've experienced--and that they're going through in the aftermath. The children are foremost in my mind. It must be such a terrifying experience, and confusing for ones so young.
That said, I think of them and their situation, and I realize that while they've been severely traumatized and terrified, they're with their parents every night, and their home is intact. There are children all around them sleeping in the streets. There are children trapped in the rubble. There are children who have lost their parents, or parents who have lost their children. It's all so very overwhelming, even from this distance, and I'm dreadfully thankful that my nephew and my niece are alive and well and being cared for by their parents, and not by strangers or relief workers.