Well.....no leads from the police on our stolen van and possessions.
Goodfellow has been AWESOME! Stellar even. We've heard from commanders and deputy commanders of various squadrons and groups. Family Readiness went in on SUNDAY and faxed all our passport applications, front pages of passports, birth certificate copies to us...and told us to get the police report and go to the state department in the a.m. The stance from GAFB is that we are NOT APPLYING for passports (we've done that and they've been issued), we are applying for REPLACEMENTS of stolen passports.
HOWEVER, there is a msgt at McChord that says all USAF no fee passports must come to him and that he cannot do a thing to speed things up. He says that I will need to get originals of all our birth certificates sent to us again and start the entire process over. This means that I will be here with the kids for weeks to come. There is another sgt that Mike has contacted who is at least willing to talk to billeting about getting us lodging. They are full and insist we are low priority as we are "pcsing through." I'm STUCK....it seems they ought to have a new category for me and the children....."stuck while trying desperately to pcs through". ::snort:: Honestly, I don't mind staying at the hotel a couple of more nights, but I have to figure out where to go after that....possibly back to OR. We are weighing the benefits of camping out with Zander and Stacia (who is whining constantly about wanting a home, our dog and a van) in their Family Readiness office. ::snort:: It may be good to stay near a base....but it seems that after I get all the applications in, I may as well wait in OR and have them call me when they arrive. I don't know.
Meanwhile the Family Readiness honcho (not his official title ::grin::) at GAFB has called back and told Mike to go ahead and try the State Department anyway and see what THEY say. I so miss being at a small base where you KNOW folks and where you are a FAMILY and a TEAM....
Last night and this a.m. Isaiah 26:3 kept running through my mind. In fact I had just told all to gather together and was going to share how God was WITH us in the next few weeks, that the key was to keep our focus on HIM and that He would keep us in perfect peace, that He wouldn't ask us to do something that is harmful to us....and that we can walk forward with confidence.....when the call came that our van was strangely missing. Dad wondered where we had gone, we were set to meet for breakfast and head to the airport. I've really been at peace most of the day. The past hour has stressed me. Mike said I'm tough if I'm just now feeling stress.
Mike flies out on Tuesday. IF the van is returned and IF our passports are in it, we will fly out too. If not, it looks like I will be starting the process over again for passports and will be flying to Japan with the children at a later date. IF GAFB is right, and the State Dept will handle this differently than a first time application, then we may still be able to fly on Tuesday with Mike.
The magnitude of what we've lost and what is at risk is starting to dawn on us. You take your favorite things in the airplane with you....and the important documents....and we are still kicking ourselves that we walked off and somehow left the briefcase with all our important papers in the van. I have no clue how that happened.....we certainly are paying a price for the mistake. We did have three suitcases in Mom and Dad's car. It turns out they are Jared's things, Mike's uniforms and the little kids' clothes. Arielle and I have 4 outfits each....she has clothes that will fit when we arrive in Japan....I have size 10 (won't fit) and maternity clothes (may fit if I spend much more time stressing out in the NW ::snort::).
ALL of our vital documents are gone...this means all of our identities are vulnerable. I will have a long list of calls to make and such. I'm currently trying to get a fraud alert put on all of our names and social security numbers...but it appears that I'm only allowed to do one......so I'm off to find other computers. LOL
I'm so thankful that Tammy and Christina talked me into shipping our photo albums rather than bringing them in my suitcases. I'm thankful that our laptops were in the hotel. I'm thankful that Mom and Dad were here this a.m. to help steady kids while Mike and I dealt with the first reports etc. I'm thankful for an extra day with our adult children. I'm thankful that our credit card was not taken. I'm thankful that Mike did not fly out tonight. I'm thankful our adult children are hear to help entertain our younger children. I'm thankful Target is across the parking lot and if need be I can go buy 5 lbs of m/m's.
Whoa - Krista went down and talked to the front desk and they brought us up a microwave. She wanted some popcorn. ::snort::
I'm off to try to set some more fraud alerts...and to rent a car....
OH - the title - Arielle and I were discussing that we felt we were living in a Nancy Drew novel....but as the day went on we decided it's much more like a Frank Peretti novel. Seriously, I think God is going to do GOOD things for us and for the kingdom while we are in Japan....and I think that there is a touch of spiritual battle going on....so as Krista says...a Peretti but not quite a Decker.
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.
~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...
