It finally falls into place

Once it all started to fall into place, it fell very quickly. Matt called me last night and we have tickets to head out Sunday morning at 9:15. I'm so excited to finally get this adventure started. Sunday will definitely be a long day, but I look forward to it. I haven't decided if I'm going to take max's car seat on the plane or not yet. I think I'll try it out the first flight and if it's uncomfortable sitting next to him than I'll gate check It before our long flight. So, now I have 3 days to make sure we have everything in order. Matt signs the lease for our house today so I need to start planning what loaner furniture we will need and what we are going to buy. 

WE GOT IT….WAHOO!!!

Matt just called me and….WE HAVE OUR SPONSORSHIP!!!!

That is the absolute best call I've received all summer!! So, he called housing to get our memo to authorize us to travel and they told him it could be done by tonight possibly (as in tonight in Matt's time). YAY!!!! They also informed him he has an appointment to sign a lease tomorrow for our house. He had no idea. I'm so excited, I seriously can't contain myself.

As soon as we have the memo from housing authorizing the kids and I to travel, we are free to make our travel arrangements. I can't believe this is finally happening. It feels so weird now. I'm not going to tell the kids until we have our flights though.

So Close...

So, I've realized that the kids and I have become accustomed to living out of suitcases and with lots of people. We've also gotten used to being without Matt. That doesn't mean it's the best situation, and it's still not easy for him, but at least we are all doing okay. Although, today Harper was learning a lesson about obedience and she started crying for her dad. It broke my heart. These poor kids, as well as I do, miss Matt.

With that said, I think things are moving a long. So, here's the most ridiculous thing so far. Matt was supposed to hear back about command sponsorship last Friday. He called and called and got nothing. No emails and no phone calls. So, Monday rolled around and he called and emailed all morning. Still nothing. Finally during his lunch break he got a hold of the S1 office. They said they would call the CSP office and find out the status and call him back by 3:00. Matt called them at 3:30 because they still hadn't called back. They said "Oh yeah, we were going to call for you. We will call you back in a little bit." So, Matt's work day ended at 4:30 and he still got nothing. No emails, no calls all day. The next day I checked his email in the morning to see if you got anything later on and saw that he had emailed himself our DEERS enrollment forms. I thought it was a bit odd so I asked him why. He told me he had finally gotten a hold of someone and they had told them they received an email LAST TUESDAY (a week ago) saying they needed those forms so they had proof that Matt had dependents before entering Korea. Seriously?! Yes people, in the 4 weeks he had been in Korea he had gotten himself a wife and two children, ages 2 and 4. So dumb. They could've looked up those forms in 2 seconds anyway. So, all that got sent in.

Yesterday we received our CSP number which means the application was finally in and Matt could track it through the process. As of today, it had been sent to housing, which looked to him to be the last stop before approval. Luckily he had to head to Yongsan in Seoul today to meet with Col Poza-Alonzo, the commanding officer of the dental corp in Korea. He plans on talking to him about all of this to see what can be done to push it through. Remember, they had moved our application up in priority and there has obviously been no priority taken. He also plans on going to the S1 office to make sure they are doing everything they can. I know I know….everyone tells me to be patient, be patient. It's been 3 months people. We've been patient enough. Matt was told it isn't even close to this difficult in any other country. It's just a Korea thing. Since we are technically still at war with Korea, it's all dealing with big army.

So, the rest of the process should hopefully go quick. Once we have command sponsorship, new orders need to be written up to include the kids and I. Matt said if you know the right people, that could be quick. He plans on talking to the Col about that. After that, I'm free to call the travel office and get flights booked. I hope it's soon because we are literally packed and ready to go any time haha. I needed to figure out how many bags we needed.

Meanwhile, we found a house we like and put a deposit down on it. If we don't get CS soon, we could lose the house and our deposit. Matt was supposed to call our agent today to ensure we still have some time. I never thought I'd settle for a 3 bedroom house, but it has another room that can double as a guest room/living space/play room, so it works out. The kids have a good room to share and the other bedroom will be an office/craft room until we have another kid sometime down the road. So, we are seeing some progress and I'm grateful for it. It's been quite the process but at least we are getting it over with and will be moving on soon. We've had a lot of fun this summer since we got used to the chaos, but are looking forwards to this new adventure.

A little progress

I'm sitting here in silence, for the first time in who knows how long, without having to escape to find it. It's so nice. But, then it gives me time to think and that's usually not the best thing in the world. I, unfortunately, tend to think of the negative. That's something I am trying to change. Anyway, I figured it'd be a good time for an update. 

So, Matt had been in Korea for just over 2 weeks. I seriously feels like it's been months though. Honestly, this whole summer is a blur and feels like it has lasted at least a year. I honestly feel like we lived in Chelan at least 6 months ago, as it's only been 2 1/2 months. The beginnings of our military life have honestly just been pure hell. The fortunate thing about that is that it should only be able to go up from here right? At least I hope so. 

Anyway, he finally made it to camp humphreys as mentioned before. He's still in the barracks but he has been seeking out housing for us every chance he gets. Every time we find something we like that is available, it seems the price increases. The realtor today even said most landlords see th growth and realize the demand is high, so they are raising their prices. That makes all the sense in the world, but the housing office doesn't seem to get it because the housing stipend is too low to afford anything. From speaking with realtors now, the price range for a 4 bedroom has gone from the $1300-$2600 that the housing has listed to about $1600-$3000/month. The average price they have listed is $1604/month. They only give a stipend of $1407/month right now. So they don't even give the average amount of the already too low rent prices. Average rent price is probably closer to $1900-$2000/month. So, 1.6 million won ($1400) isn't enough. We haven't been able to find anything for lower than 1.9 million won, and the ones we have found are supposedly going up in price. So, hopefully the housing office catches up soon. Matt is going to let them know the issues he's having. 

He did start work on Thursday, which I'm sure has been great. He went about 2 1-2 months without touching any dental instruments. He said it'll probably take him about a month to get used to their system. 

He was also able to find a good car that will fit us the whole time we are in Korea. He got a 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe for just over $9000. I don't remember the mileage on it, but it should definitely last for 2-4 years. The mileage was pretty low for being that low. I think just under 200,000 km. 

He told me yesterday he spoke with Col Lowe who had spoken with Col poza-Alonzo (I think he's matts commander) and they said our command sponsorship should go quickly. We don't really know what that means in military terms, but at least it was news like that instead of negative news. Yay :)! 

As for the kids and I, we are just enjoying our summer with family. We went to reunion with matts family at the lake house in Montana. It was the most chill and relaxed reunion so far. We had a lot of fun. The kids even participated in a mini kids triathlon. I'll post pics eventually. While we are at my brother's, we go to the gym every other morning for my own sanity, and then just hang out and swim and have fun. 

Choices, choices, choices.

So, Matt found out that if he checks with housing every Monday and the occupancy numbers are above 95% he can get a statement of non availability and be able to live off post still. So, with his week off, he's decided to be pro active. Yesterday he met with someone who showed him some used cars and was then able to show him some houses. Luckily that real estate company had access to some of my top favorite houses. The agent told him if he put a $200 deposit down in each of the house and car we chose, they'd save it for us. 

We narrowed it down to two houses. Ace town and wellness house. I hadn't seen ace town before but wellness house was tied for my top favorite. They both had 4 bedrooms and three living areas as well as two master bedrooms. Ace town had 3 bathrooms, all of which had really nice bathtubs. Wellness house had 4 bathrooms, but only one had a bathtub. My kids bathe a lot and when I'm pregnant, I like to bathe instead of shower. The wellness house had a much larger kitchen though. It had wood flooring throughout and the ace town house had mostly marble flooring with different stuff in the bathrooms and closets. The price difference? Wellness house was 1.9-2 million won (around $1600-$1700)/month and ace town was 2.5 million won ($2150/month). After much deliberation, we decided to put a deposit down in the wellness house. We should be able to pocket money with that choice because they give quite a bit for utilities. Both houses also have solar panels so hopefully that helps. So, now we just need to keep praying he can get off post before we get there so we can ensure we don't lose our deposit. 

So the other thing we needed to decide was our car situation. We thought about buying a new explorer because that's what we will eventually get, and supposedly it's tax free if we buy on post over there, but we decided to buy used and then buy new before he move home. So, he looked at a couple of Hyundai Santa Fe's. There was the 2011 option or a 2006 option. The older model had a nicer interior and not many more miles than the 2011. So, we decided on that option because it was around $7000 cheaper. So, luckily we will be able to just get a small cash loan and pay it off in a couple of months. 

So, overall we made the more economical choices. We won't have a car payment and we will be able to possibly make money off of the house we chose. That is if we are able to live off post. If not, then we will be on post and not have to pay anything at all anyway. I'm still hoping for the former though. 

Big army

ISo, I'm not going to lose hope in us getting to Korea under command sponsorship, but that may be the first thing this summer that goes right. 

Matt was planning on looking for off post housing once he got to camp humphreys, but he got there a couple of days, literally, too late. A girl who is single and not in need of sponsorship and was at BOLC with him who got there a few days before him is signing her off post lease today. Matt, on the other hand, has been signed to the barracks since and will be moving there Friday since on paper he is technically unaccompanied. The reason she gets to be off post and he doesn't? Yes, that would be because the day she got there the barracks were 95+% occupied. That's what it has to be for unaccompanied or family housing for someone or a family to be approved to live off post. Right now, if we were sponsored, we would be looking off post because it's over 95%. Matt isn't able to because the day he got there the barracks were 92% occupied. It has everything to do with what is written on paper as opposed to what's logical. Would I expect anything else? Nope. Matt said he's going to look for housing anyway. 

So, fun fact. I decided to ask Matt why we have to deal with big army in Korea (mainly because it's ridiculous and annoying) and it is because we are technically still at war with North Korea. At the end of the war they only signed a cease fire and not a peace treaty I guess. That's why he is also technically at deployed status bid rather his deployment be there than in the Middle East though. So that's a huge blessing.  

Wahoo!!! Packet is in!

Matt just text me to let me know our command sponsorship packet is in. His S1 signed a paper today to bump us up in priority as well. So, instead of being priority 3 for approval, we are priority 2. We don't know how long that means we will have to wait for them to approve (hopefully not deny) sponsorship, but waiting is about all we ca do now. Matt heads down to camp humphreys tomorrow to start looking for housing. I've found some pretty awesome houses/apartments so I need to send him the listings. We will be living off post, but everything I have found is close. Yay for good news!

Graititude

I was thinking this morning before church and realized how informational/negative my posts have seemed and I wanted to fix that. That is definitely not my intention, but with nothing going right with this transition and my baby and all of that, I did forget to write about the good things. 

First off, I am grateful to my in laws, my parents and my brother Adam and his family for their willingness to take us in this summer. That has been a true blessing to us. My kids have adapted and seem to be doing great now. I'm grateful that my father in law was my dr during my miscarriage and that I was living at their house during the process. I knew I was in good hands and that I would be taken care of. And, I was. 

I'm also very grateful for the few friends I had who cared to contact me and help me through this summer. One in particular helped me talk through the miscarriage which prevented me from allowing myself to try to figure out what I may have done wrong to lose the baby. She helped me talk through everything enough to make me realize that I wasn't ever going to carry this baby to term. That was crucial in being able to emotionally heal from it quickly. 

Even though it seems nothing is working out, I am also very grateful for the knowledge I have that everything is happening as it is for a a reason and that the God is aware of me, my family and our situation. I know everything will work out as it's supposed to. We have been fortunate as a family to have everything we've ever planned work out the way we planned it up until this summer. It only seems right that we go through these trials as a family. It has helped us become stronger and our relationships grow closer together. I'm grateful for that.