And Now For Something Completely Different

We closed on the refinance on the house on Friday. Our renters are excited to be getting into the house in the next week or two. We are still waiting on word from the medical review board. Other than that, there is not much of interest to report.

As a break from the normal doom and gloom, here are a couple of limericks written this week. They made us laugh, and hopefully they'll bring a smile to your face as well.

Miss Gibbs really needs smiting,
The results will be totally frightening.
I'll release fire ants
To go up her pants,
Or maybe I'll strike her with lightening.

Poor Sarah is sad and alone,
So the DPR needs to come home.
He is on a quest
To go be a pest
Cuz Fort Sill needs to get pwned.

Have a great weekend.

Self-important Drill Sergeants make life difficult

The refinance on the house is temporarily on hold until Lloyd is able to get the cadre at Fort Sill to play nicely long enough for him to get the necessary power of attorney (POA) paperwork set. Until the forms are signed, we can not move forward with the bank. We are praying that they let him keep his appointment for Tuesday. Nothing else new to report. Just a lot of the same old garbage.

Thanks for your prayers. God bless!

Keep Your Fingers Folded

Lloyd signed his packet earlier today. The medical review board has it and should give their decision in the next 3 weeks. A lot is riding on what they have to say about what percentage of disability they assign. (It goes in increments of 10%) As we understand it, it mostly can be summed up as one of two results at this point.

1. Medical discharge: Disability rating 10% or 20%. Lloyd gets an honorable discharge, and his GI Bill pays for school. He files paperwork with the Veterans Administration, and (after they go through a whole different process) they send him a monthly check for his disability.
2. Medical retirement: Disability rating 30% or higher. Lloyd gets an honorable discharge, and his GI Bill pays for school. He files paperwork with the Veterans Administration, and (after they go through a whole different process) they send him a monthly check for his disability. Additionally, he receives a military pension, continues medical insurance at very low annual cost, and gets a lot of other benefits of being a retired disabled veteran.

Obviously, medical retirement is the "better" of the two. It's also not very common for the review board to grant it with good reason. (Unless you're missing a limb or wheelchair bound of course.) We are praying that in Lloyd's case that they do. Of course, the long term financial benefit is there. However, there is a much larger aspect to it. The medical issues that Lloyd has that are directly related to his time in the service are significant. We are hopeful that some of the symptoms might get better with time and treatment, but there are no guarantees of that, and it could very well be that what he needs isn't covered and needs to be paid for out of pocket. The conditions as they are now are going to have an as of yet undetermined impact on what he is able to do. Finally, this is an official acknowledgement of what happened and its long term effect on our life. This factor is intangible, but that doesn't lessen its importance.

A lot is riding on these next few weeks, and we appreciate your continued prayers and support.

God Bless!

Pardon the Skepticism

Lloyd has gotten word from the folks at Fort Sill that they want to have everyone currently in his status cleared through the process and home within the next month, so we'll be praying that this happens. We'll believe it when he has his discharge orders in hand and his boots on the ground in Green Bay.

God bless!

Needed: Itching Powder

Things are starting to roll for the refinance on the house. It's taking longer than the bank had planned, but that's actually par for the course when dealing with the Sheffers. Paperwork always seems to get delayed for us. Provided there are no snags, we should be able to finish through it all within a week or two. We're just waiting to set the date for closing.

News out of Fort Sill hasn't been nearly as promising. After hearing that the NARSUM was ready for Lloyd's signature more than a week ago, he still hasn't been able to sign it, and he has no idea when he will be able to put  pen to paper. This is why we're always hesitant to celebrate when someone tells us that they have good news. We've gotten burned too often to get too excited. We're back to wishing unpleasant and uncomfortable things on people who aren't doing their job. (Current favorite is try to curse Miss Gibbs with an itch in a place that is socially unacceptable to scratch.)

Because we are still getting so many delays from Fort Sill, we are moving forward with relocation plans. Sure, there's a chance that they'll get the paperwork rolling. Sure, it's about as likely as a football team coming back from a 15 point deficit with 2 minutes to play in the game, but, it could happen. Realistically though, it's pretty unlikely that they're going to get everything together before the move happens. The house is starting to look pretty empty. There's still plenty to do, but it's really starting to feel real.

Charlie battery continues to be an unpleasant and frustrating place for Lloyd. The Blue Falcons have been out in full force, and there seems to be no stopping them. It has severely limited Lloyd's free time making it difficult for him to call home or have any chance to relax, and it's gotten much worse the last couple of weeks. In the past, when it was just a few days, Lloyd was able to keep his spirits up. It's getting much more difficult though as the weeks pass. Our prayer is that we catch a break and the stress eases up to allow us to restore our strength for whatever we have to face next.

God Bless!

What Does This Mean?

Someone put our plans in a blender and hit puree. Again. Why do we even bother with a plan anyway? It's not like a single thing that we have made a plan on has EVER made it from start to finish. By the time that we do anything at all, we have had to redo or completely scrap the plan at LEAST one time. Lots of people have heard the line that you should "write your goals in granite and your plans in sand." Still, you expect that the tweaks to the plan will not require major course changes on a regular basis. In the last year and a half or so, we have changed course so often that we are suffering from some severe emotional and mental whiplash. 

The last 24 hours have been no exception to this. We have had a lot of new information dumped on us. A lot of people have asked what the new information means for us, and we honestly have no idea. We are going to need some time to process it all and determine what, if anything, needs to change about our current plan. We are not trying to be evasive or hide anything from people. We just don't know.

What we do know is this:

1. Miss Gibbs called Lloyd yesterday to inform him that the NARSUM is ready for him, and he should be able to sign it next week. The "normal" time from when a soldier signs the NARSUM and when he/she is discharged to go home is 6-8 weeks. (Keep in mind that the "normal" time for the med board process in its entirety is 3-6 months. Lloyd started the process in February 2010, so the clock is at 20 months. We don't necessarily put much stock in "normal" time frames.) 
2. The bank called. They finally got the report from the appraisal. It came in lower than we wanted, so we only have 10% equity instead of 20%. We will not be able to get as good of terms in the refinance. We will, at least, be out from under the conditions of the WHEDA loan that were severely limiting our options. 

That's it. That is all that we know. This new information needs to be incorporated into a decision about how to move forward from this point. Until that is done, we will be tentatively moving forward with the original most recent version of our plan. There are still a couple of weeks where we can continue on the path without reaching any critical points. We will be going ahead with the paperwork on the loan and packing the house for relocation. If we decide to cancel the relocation, it is still easy enough to stop the process.

On a side note, there has been a lot of tomfoolery and jackassery going on in Lloyd's unit. This has resulted in a lot of additional stress for Lloyd due to increased inspections, extra duties for the unit, and general all around suckiness. Combine that with the fact that he's got a nasty head cold, and he's having a pretty miserable week. 

For our prayin' peeps, we have an updated list:

1. Discernment as we decide how to proceed with the new information about Lloyd's status.
2. For us to keep our priorities and goals in the front of our minds and allow us to keep the main things the main things.
3. A quick recovery from the bug that Lloyd caught.
4. For the others in Lloyd's unit to see the error of their ways and start behaving themselves at least well enough to avoid punishment.
5. Peace in the uncertainty.
6. The ability to maintain focus in the day to day of life.

We appreciate you all so much.

God Bless!

That Bastard Murphy Strikes Again

A large portion of our possessions are packed and either in the storage unit or piled in the second bedroom awaiting transport to Oklahoma. Everything is rolling with bank and employer for the relocation. We are just waiting for the appraisal to come back and the power of attorney (POA) paperwork to be ready, so a date can be set to sign for the new loan.

Today, Miss Gibbs called Lloyd to let him know that the NARSUM is (finally) all ready and he could be signing his packet next week. Provided there are no more delays, they could be discharging him in six weeks. Seriously? All we needed to do to get Muphy's Law to kick in was to pack everything in the house and start the ball rolling for a relocation?

In all seriousness, we are so very grateful for all of the prayers and encouragement through this all. We know that it is not our strength that is getting us through these trials. Every single one of you makes a huge difference for us.

We haven't had a chance to discuss what this means for the relocation plans yet. We have always known that it would be easier and faster for him to deal with all of the stuff with the V.A. while at Fort Sill, so it might still be in the cards for us to move down their to finish those forms and appointments. We are going to need lots of extra prayers for discernment as we go forward from here.

God Bless!