Chad's leave request was approved, so we now know what day we are pulling out of the driveway for the last time. Since we know that date, we counted to 30 and picked the closest ferry departure date to the end of our leave. We end up cutting our 30 days of leave a few days short, but we'd prefer to have the extra time in Alaska to house hunt (sorry family, nothing personal) rather than try and rush the drive on the Al-Can highway. Since we settled on a sailing date, I thought I'd call the ferry line and see if they were available. They were. We even got a cabin, I'm sure it will be super high class...it has a shower and sink and toilet, we even have a window :). We can bring our own food or purchase meals at the cafeteria. The cat stays in the car and we can visit him every 8 hours (which makes me happy knowing we don't have to worry about Bug letting him out of the cabin...that would make a fun story, I'm sure).
The few weeks leading up to this point have been a bit of a journey all on their own. We've had a lot of ups and downs, there has been a lot of speculating and tentative planning with back up and back-back up plans. We originally were going to fly to MI and then fly to AK, have our car shipped and make the cat get himself to AK somehow... This was all going to happen in mid June which put me at about 34-35 weeks pregnant...it was VERY hard to find the joy in that situation. But things shifted, as they tend to do in a Military Home, and we're all very happy with how the plans are falling together.
In addition to having our ferry reservations, we also have a temporary housing reservation, and a "living wall calendar" that covers the last 60 or so days that we are in Louisiana. I have phone numbers assigned to each step of the process, I have sticky notes that tell me to sort clothes and the filing and the junk drawers. The major steps we need to take are still on hold until we get those precious orders in our hands and we can make 15,000 copies of them. We aren't going to get those orders until Bug and I are cleared of needing any extra medical care of any kind. I was told that takes 1-2 weeks...we don't have the screening until next week...so we are looking at 3 weeks until we get that coveted piece of paper. Grumble, grumble.
The joy in this journey---the fact I can use this as an opportunity to teach my daughter patience by example? Blah. I totally understand why she throws temper-tantrums. That's much more appealing right now...
I guess I should now go rearrange my sticky notes on the calendar so I'm doing the house organizing over the next two weeks and we'll have the last month to rush through the Army red tape. Oh Joy :)
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