Earthquake!

This morning while skyping with Su Sien in NZ, I felt that unmistakable swaying of our apartment. I messaged her "earthquake!" and ran out from the study to see how bad it was... we hang our bananas on a little hook on a kitchen cabinet handle and the bunch was swinging happily.

I quickly sat down by the dining table, ready to turn the gas off and dive down under if it got worse. I prayed, Oh Lord please make it stop! It did after what seemed like forever (if you're experiencing an earthquake, any tremor more than 10 seconds seems like forever!). We've experienced a few tremors since moving to this apartment but nothing that felt like this one.

It was scary to be alone during an earthquake yet I was relieved at the same time... Minori and daddy were out at the nearby park, which also happens to be a designated emergency evacuation center.

I came back to the computer with a skype screen full of messages from NZ. It stopped, I assured Su Sien, and we went on to chat about natural disasters.

My prayers and thoughts go out to the earthquake victims and people of Niigata and the neighboring areas. Throughout the day, we could still feel several of the after-shocks.