Preparing to move

After leaving sunny El Paso, TX in April, 2012 we headed to hot and humid Lawton, OK for Captain's Career Course.  In July, 2012 we found out we'd be heading to Korea come fall.  We were excited, nervous, anxious, and BUSY.

My husband is super on top of things and applied for command sponsorship right away.  In order for a servicemember to bring his/her family to Korea, they must apply for the family to be command sponsored (CS).  Basically it's a process to determine if all members of the family will have the services they need.  There aren't many family members in Korea so some of the medical facilities, schools, etc don't have everything some people need.  For instance, if a family member has certain medical conditions they might be denied sponsorship if the medical facility near the base can't treat it.  That is just to ensure everyone has access to the services they need.  Our CS was approved quickly so the fun of planning an overseas move began!

We had to get passports, immunizations, arrange for our household goods (HHG) to be shipped, get tickets, get the dog a ticket, ship our car, and the list goes on.  Luckily the Army takes care of moving the HHG and storing whatever we didn't bring with us so that wasn't too bad.  In the middle of all this I had sinus surgery to add a little excitement to our lives.  The end of September was super busy packing and cleaning, the beginning of October brought Adam's graduation from CCC and a long drive to Oregon.

 

Yellowstone National Park

 We spent an awesome month and a half in Oregon visiting family before we left the country.  On our drive we went to Yellowstone National Park and spent time in Montana.  Then it was home sweet Oregon.  We all loved spending time with family and friends and Lucas cherished the moments with his grandparents.  I was really happy to spend so much time with both of my parents and not feel like we needed to cram a visit into a few short days.  On an extra rainy Saturday in November, my dad drove the three of us, our dog, six suitcases, two backpacks, and one carseat up to Seattle for the looooong flight to Korea.

A walk in the rain with Oma

At the Oregon Coast Aquarium with Boppa