Plenty to Be Thankful For

It has been a busy couple of exciting and fun filled weeks.

Lloyd got home on November 19 for keeps and forever. We have decided that we are going to name this as a family holiday. From now on, 11/19 will be on our calendar as "Home Day," and we intend to celebrate it every year to remind us of all that "home" means to us. It's especially cool that Home Day is 11/19 since that was the address of the house where the Braatz family grew up in West Allis, WI. (Extra hugs and such go out to Mamaw, Uncle Dave, Uncle Richard, and Mom.)

Since then we had a fantastic Thanksgiving at the Rose home eating delicious food, enjoying time with family, and celebrating a Packer victory. It was amazing to have Lloyd home for this as we knew without a doubt what we were thankful for that day.

The following weekend, we headed to LaCrosse for the traditional Blakeley Fake Family Christmas get together. We had a great time just relaxing with family and friends, and Lloyd got to experience Exploratory Surgery at Pizza Doctors for the first time ever. As an added bonus, we also got a lesson on how to use a cast iron waffle maker, so we should be able to make them now without making a mess. We'll see how it works out the next time that we try to make them.

Since then, most of our time has been spent with work, putting the apartment together, and getting used to being able to actually live together. Lloyd has been tracking down leads for a job and enjoying the whole "being a civilian" thing. (He grew a beard. :) He plans to shave it for job interviews but is having fun with the idea until then.) We did make a trip down to the VA regional office in Milwaukee to start the claim process for Lloyd last Thursday. The expectation for the trip was that we would drive down there to get an appointment for him to start filing paperwork at a later date, but he did bring all of his medical and service records with him just in case they could do a bit more than that. It turns out that we got a pretty amazing surprise.....he was not only able to meet with someone about the claim - because he had such complete records with him, he was able to submit a fully developed claim last Thursday. According to the guy at the VA, the process should take around 3 months instead of the 6 months to a year that we had been anticipating. We're pretty happy about that news.

Right now, our major project is to finish moving into the apartment and getting everything set in it. We're looking forward to being able to have friends and family come to visit us soon.

God Bless!

Drop. Your. Sword.

The Dread Pirate Roberts has passed the eel infested waters and climbed the Cliffs of Insanity. He won duels of all sorts. The DPR and his princess have survived the Fire Swamp with its rodents of unusual size. (Commonly referred to as battle "buddies" who cause more trouble than they're worth.) He managed to get out of the Pit of Despair and storm the castle. Right now, he is threatening the powers that be with a duel to the pain. We all know that in the end, he and the princess will ride off into the sunset for a beautiful life together. However, in this moment, it's a little tense about how that happens.

Lloyd does not have the official date for his return home yet. Tomorrow, he will be pushing through the paperwork and threatening to duel anyone who slows him down in any way shape or form. Hopefully, there will be a call tomorrow that all is ready to go.

God bless!

Jumping for Joy!!

The current saga of Army related shenanigans will soon be coming to a close. While a lot of endings can be described as bittersweet, this one is not. It's just SWEET!!! On Thursday, 10 November 2011, Lloyd received his discharge orders. He did a couple of celebratory laps in the barracks and then called his wife who burst into tears of relief at work. (They are getting used to this at the Dousman Street Express. Management will likely breathe a sigh of relief when this saga is finally done.) He then began the task of tracking down the necessary parties in order to get his final "send me home now" paperwork. (A DD214 for those who are military minded.) It was delayed a bit due the holiday weekend, but he took a bit of time to rest up and prepare for a flurry of activity to get him on the first possible plane home. Hopefully, the date of departure will be set sometime today.

We thank you for your prayers over these last 23 months of challenges and ask you to keep praying for safe travels home.

God bless!

Time Frames and Terminal Leave

Between lack of phone calls and lack of internet, there hasn't been much updating happening for a bit....not that much has actually changed. Here's what we now know.

"Military" version: Lloyd heard from the medical review board last week. They came back with a 10% disability rating. Lloyd signed off on everything, and is waiting for all of the necessary packets to be signed at various locations around Fort Sill, so his discharge orders can be processed. At the time that his orders are finished, he will speak with the cadre about arranging for his terminal leave. They require 6 days notice before terminal leave can begin, and it takes an additional 72 hours for the orders to be cut for that leave for a total of 9 days. On the day that his leave begins, he will be given his flight information for arrival into Green Bay.

"Civilian" version: Lloyd finally heard back from the review board. He got a 10% rating which is what we expected but not what we wanted. He signed off on it all, and started the goat rodeo where they shuffle paperwork around for a week or two. Since they were stingy bastards about giving him his vacation time, he's got a bunch of it saved up. As soon as they finish his paperwork, he's going to make the arrangements with his boss to take all of his vacation time and have his last day in the Army be his last day of vacation. It takes them 9 days to figure out how to handle that because it's not like just about every person who leaves the military has this happen. They also are incapable of planning ahead, so they can't tell him until the day he leaves Oklahoma (or maybe the night before) when his flight is actually going to get into Green Bay. It's not like it will likely stay the same anyway since he'll probably end up connecting through Chicago, and anyone who's taken the Chicago to Green Bay puddle jumper knows that the flight is ALWAYS delayed.

No frustration shows in this posting, right?

On the brighter side, Express Convenience has been incredibly helpful and accommodating through all of our yo-yo life. When the plan was for Sarah to relocate, they created a "Green Bay flex team" floater position that would allow for a flexible departure date. After the relocation got scrapped, they happily have extended that position as long as it is needed. Additionally, even though the schedule will already be posted at that time, they have agreed to give the full day off when Lloyd returns with management covering the shift if necessary. It is really nice to know that there are companies out there who really live out their stated beliefs of working with employees to ensure that their personal life can be a priority. There are not a lot of places like that anymore.

Right now, we are praying that Lloyd receives his discharge orders by November 10 at the absolute latest, so he will be able to be at all of the various Thanksgiving/Christmas gatherings that will be happening in the next two months. This should be a slam dunk no brainer to have happen, but that isn't the way that things have gone for us the last 22 months. We appreciate any extra prayers that you'd like to send in that direction.

God Bless!

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!