688

Yes, yes, yes, I am still here.  Barely, but I do detect signs of life in here :)

I am sorry for not updating lately.  The last few weeks have been hard times of adjustment.  Not really just adjusting to a new culture, but adjusting to a LOT of things. The last TEN months have brought one thing after another and although I have handled it all fairly well, I finally broke on Sunday.  I feel like all the stress I should have felt over the last ten months (but for the most part didn't) ALL hit me on one day.  It was crazy and I have never really felt anything like it.

There is a life-stress scale that I remember seeing back in my college psychology days.  It shows you the major life stressors and assigns a value to them.  Here is what the introduction says:

This widely reprinted index lists 43 stressful life events and the value of each in “stress units.” Use the blank lines between items to add your own life-stress events, and assign each an appropriate stress unit value by comparing it to the events ranked in the chart.

To use the Life Stress Scale, check the events that have happened to you within the last year. Then add up your total number of stress units. Holmes and Rahe, who developed this scale, found that a score of 150 gives you a 50-50 chance of developing an illness. A score of more than 300 gives you a 90 percent chance.

You want to know my score (without even adding in anything of my own like cultural issues, not having transportation, learning a new language, major financial issues, no reliable internet etc)...

688

Yep.  688.  I don't think that can be good.

However comma (my mother has this weird habit of stating her punctuation in actual words...I am afraid I have picked it up) I am slowly recovering from the onslaught and am hoping that happier things (and calmer times) are on the way. I feel like we may finally be at the beginning of the end of what has turned out to be a crazy (and yet wonderful!) year. It's interesting how my little word for the year has mean BIG things.

Oh, and the picture?  What I wake up to every morning.  This was taken from the balcony of the master bedroom yesterday.  His mercies are truly new every morning.

Comments

[MandaKay]

Awe...so sorry that the stress finally had to come to a head, but sometimes that is good because it gave you the opportunity to face it and see it for what it is. I will pray for you that things start getting a little easier! Love your final little verse reminder!

[Hollie]

So you're not gonna tell us what in the world added up to a score of 688? Either way, I pray that you are doing well and that things do get better!

[Joy]

{{{hugs}}} I'm going to do myself a favor and not put a number to my stress! And I don't even have to manage things like living in a new country, trying to navigate transportation w/o a car nor living w/o my belongs for months.

God Bless you...He will see you through :)