One Week Later

::Deep breath in....Deep breath out:: Those are the words that I have been repeating to myself numerous times a day for the past week. It has been one week since the 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan; I imagine I will never have another week like this in my life, or at least I hope that I don't. It has been a week of stress, tension, and emotions of all kinds...and we are definitely not the worst off in this whole fiasco!

Last weekend and Monday were fairly normal days. We talked about the earthquake in school, where my kids were when it happened, why and how earthquake and tsunami's happen, etc. Then, Tuesday came. We were told mid-morning to keep the kids inside for recess because there were small amounts of radiation in the air. I had 5 kids picked up by the end of the day and on Wednesday, I only had 9 of my 16 kids in school. The radiation levels here were so small that we really had nothing to worry about.

We also had another 5.0 magnitude earthquake here on Tuesday night. AJ was here for this one, so now he understands! ;-)

By Thursday, it seemed that we were back on track, no earthquakes and the radiation levels had dropped even lower. That is, until I got a phone call from AJ during lunch telling me to go home and pack a bag for at least 4 days. By Thursday evening, they had announced on base that there was going to be a voluntary evacuation of all military dependents. AJ's squadron had already flown there jets to Guam and we knew that AJ would be joining them this weekend.

Friday, there was no school and we had to go to a meeting to "sign up" for our trip home. I am in category 4, which is military dependents with children over the age of 13 and dependents with no children. Basically, we are the last group to leave.

To say that I am scared is an understatement. The levels of radiation here are still very low and they are of no threat to us at the moment. But, we are being evacuated to the states in the near future. I had to pack a bag weighing no more than 50 lbs. and I packed 3 boxes to go home of stuff that I cannot replace if something happens. As I am typing this, AJ is planning on leaving for Guam this afternoon, which leaves me here with a few other wives to just sit around and wait. We were told yesterday that we would be put into groups, given a time to arrive and then go from there. The "list" of groups was suppose to be done yesterday afternoon, then it was 10:00 last night, and now here I sit at 8:45 am on Saturday morning and I still have no idea what group I am in let alone when I will leave, what city I will land in when I get to the west coast and how I will get home once I get there. All of the unknown, lack of sleep, and sadness are making this harder than I expected.

I hope to have more answers as the day goes on, but for now, please keep all of us and the Japanese in your thoughts and prayers. Our stress is difficult, but it is nothing compared to what is going on in the northern part of the country.