Military & Moving Moments

Yesterday, JB spoke with the housing office at Eglin Air Force Base and got some good news. We are eligible for a three bedroom house on base!!!!!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. The fact that we would get a two bedroom was one of my main concerns about base living. I would be working from home and need office space. We will probably (hopefully) be having a lot of guests in this vacation hot spot. We are doing a transfer in May for sure and possibly more. We are beginning the process of adoption. If we have chidlren while we are there, we would definitely be eligible for a three bedroom. But would we want to move?

All of those things made a two bedroom seem awfully small for us. However, when JB spoke with the housing office yesterday and told them our plans for adoption they immediately responded that this one fact put us in the three bedroom track! Yippppeeee!!!! I am really thrilled about this.

The only bad news concerns the wait time. We can't put our name on the housing list until 30 days before JB's start date. His start date is June 6th which means May 6th (right after we return from South Africa), our name will go down. However, the wait list is 1-2 months which means we could have to put our stuff in storage and be in temporary housing for 4 to 8 weeks. This isn't ideal, but it is something we can handle. Since the military pays for all moving expenses, storage, temporary housing etc., I can live with this. If you think of it, please be praying that the wait time is minimal then, and that when Ron and John drive us down to Florida, they can move our stuff right into a new home!

I am excited about our decision to live on base. One thing that JB said he will not compromise on in a new home is a yard. He really wants to have a garden. Even if we did find a place off base that fit into the monthly housing stipend costs, it would definitely be an apartment or town home unless we bought. Unfortunately, buying is just not something we want to do for a three year stint in a hurricane zone. We really just want to eliminate pressure and stress. We also like the idea of no mortgage or utilities -- we simply show up and live. How cool is that?

We also got great news on airplane tickets! A few weeks back I looked at tickets. JB and Ron Ray are planning on driving down to Eglin and will then fly back. We want JB here for my transfer. Then JB and I will back down to Eglin together. When we looked at tickets a few weeks back, it was going to cost nearly $1,000 for the three of us to make these flights. Not too good. However, I looked this weekend and it was only going to cost $600!!! How cool is that? The bad news is, after we booked JB's two-way flight, we went to book mine and the time that we picked for his flight isn't a "cheap flight" option for me. This means that I may have to be on a different flight. But for the price, we'll take it.

We are also starting to think about the number of things that need to be done before we leave for Nigeria in a month. We need to pay our taxes before we leave. We need to pay a lot of bills before we leave. Just little things like that. We are also thinking about the number of things that will need to be done in the one month we have after we return and before we move to Florida. Woah! We have a lot going on. While I am sad to be leaving such great friends here in Rochester, I am so excited to be moving base, my husband becoming a doctor, and getting to start on a new journey. Lots of fun and interesting days ahead.