To catch you up...

I'm unsure if there's a way to be more frustrated than what I am right now.
The Navy can go suck it.

We're being told by different people all sorts of different things, but no one seems to have ever been directly involved in a similar situation in the past. Therefore we aren't sure what we should be believing. At least, I'm not sure. Carl seems to be only clinging to the hope that we go. Let me back up.


Japan.

In March we, or more-so, Carl, started the search for new orders. For those of you not familiar with military lingo that means that Carl's time on his current ship is drawing to a close. We're slated to be out of here late November, and he was supposed to apply for new orders months in advance.
Round one (March): Carl applied for semi-exotic locations. Well. Semi-exotic to me, a down-home midwest girl. Possibilities included Washington, California, and even Italy! After a month of waiting we found out that he didn't get selected to fill any of the 5 orders that he put in for.
Round two (April): Well, much to my amazement, we could try again! Carl applied to more mundane places this time, hoping to just get selected. I believe, if I remember right, these included Virginia, California again, and Florida. Again we waited a month, and again, he didn't get selected for any of the 5 positions he applied for. I thought this was the end of the line, and so did he. So he called the detailer,  and was told that he would have to send his selections in to the detailer this time around.
Round three (May): This time in a desperate attempt to just get selected for anywhere, Carl put together a list of all the stations that he'd like, and ships he wouldn't mind being on. This time the list of ten or so included most of the places from before and Guam, Mississippi. Pretty much anywhere where he wouldn't have to be on a destroyer. He wants new experiences, not just the same ol' job he has been doing. End of the month came, and the detailer emailed Carl back, saying that he couldn't give him any of those orders, however there were orders for Sasebo, Japan, a little minesweeper (Only 250ish feet long, compared to the Paul Hamilton which is 500ish feet long). Excited to just be able to say we were actually going somewhere he accepted.

Japan.

The detailer then told him that he couldn't give him official orders yet, due to budget issues and we probably wouldn't get them 'til September/October. Mind you, we are supposed to be out of here in November, which means, since we're going over seas and there are a million more things to do then, it might be cutting it a bit short, since most of the stuff that we do have to do can only be done after we have official orders.

Let me just chime in here with my worries about going to a foreign country. Especially Japan. I absolutely adore our animals, And I think this is one of the things that is preventing me from being super excited to go. In Japan, only about 20% of housing will allow animals. I'm not so worried about the normal 2-week quarantine. Since we're coming from Hawaii which already has strict animal-health regulations, the quarantine would only be about 12 hours.  But, if we can't find housing for them, we're going to have to get rid of them. and It'd be better to get rid of them back here before leaving. This is a BIG deal for me. They're more like kids to me than animals. Second, it's even further from home, which makes it a lot more expensive to get back, and we already had to empty our bank account when Carl's grandma passed. I'm afraid of something happening to my family, and only having money to send one of us home. And, to be honest, I like working here. I like being able to go somewhere for the morning or the day. Who knows if that's going to happen over there. plus there a couple other things that aren't as big of a deal that are bothering me.
Not wanting to fall behind, we started doing everything physically possible in preparation. Carl contacted a sponsor over on the Minesweeper, and John and his wife Gigi started helping us slowly move along with what COULD be done (again, there wasn't a lot, since medical screening and other stuff can't be started without official orders.)

Then, suddenly, it dawned on me that maybe with my diabetes this might be a problem. We started looking up all the information possible, checking the Japan bases medical information, and everything seemed to look down.  Many sites said that diabetes is on the list of people they won't take. However, it was unclear if that meant active-duty or spouses or even children. Carl stumbled upon a blog of a young girl who was diagnosed with diabetes while in Sasebo, and her family had to be re stationed back in the states. Again, this just made everything fuzzier.

So we enrolled me in a program called the EFMP or Exceptional Family Member Program. This should allow the detailer to make accommodations for placement. However this will only help if the paper work goes though, but that could take up to 16 weeks. The coordinator for the program, unfortunately, informed us that diabetes automatically classifies as a category 3, which translates as no overseas duty.

However any other medical professionals we talk to believe that diabetes shouldn't be a problem to go over to Japan.

Therefore we're back to not knowing anything. Not knowing where we'll be in a couple months. Not knowing what life has in store for us. Just waiting on the Navy to catch up to us.

But I guess that's all in the life of a military spouse.
A military wife only possibly being relocated to Japan.