I just applied for my first online writing job! My first online job period. I am excited and exhausted. I wanted to share with you the answer to this application question I had. The questions were thought-provoking which I love. What was your most stressful situation? And how did you handle the stress?

I live one hour south of central Tokyo, Japan. My family and I are living on a naval base for a tour and have been here a little over 18 months. The earthquake and tsunami that hit in March of this year was by far the most stressful situation I can remember being in next to my husband having surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain a few years ago. It is difficult to put into words how stressful this all was. I will never forget feeling the quake standing in a store on base as everything shook. We felt it at about a 7.3 here, nothing compared to the 9.0 felt about 5 hours north of us. Immediately, I knew a huge earthquake had struck somewhere further from us. No damage where we were, so we went on with our day at first. Then, entering the library to study everyone was watching the live news coverage of the tsunami beginning to wash into shore over homes and people. I froze. That is the immediate reaction, then waiting. Waiting for the Japanese, for the U.S. military, for my husband to tell me exactly what the next move should be. What can you do? I cried for all the lives lost.; for this beautiful country I had come to love. Then, when the military informed us of small amounts of radiation from the nuclear plant and of a possible meltdown, many families decided to evacuate. Since I was pregnant, it was not a hard choice. However, it was extremely stressful to leave on very short notice not knowing when I’d come back, how I would explain to my two year old, and when we’d see my husband who had to stay back to work and support the relief efforts. How did I handle this stress? The truth is, I put one foot in front of the other. I kept moving, kept praying, and God was the shining light for me. The stress or maybe the virus I picked up on the plane put me on bed rest those last two months of pregnancy, but I knew from my spiritual and psychology studying that worrying was only going to make my conditions worse, so I stayed thankful. Trusting God and my loving family kept my spirits up and brought my husband safe at my side when our daughter was born. Fortunately, our area of Japan is safe and we are back home in Japan living life like before except with a greater appreciation for our military mission and for life itself.

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