Unsuitable

We were unsure of how long it would take to hear back from the appeal at first.

We knew a few people who had also gone through the appeal process recently, and they said about three weeks.

Three weeks came and went. Nothing.

Four weeks. Five weeks. No word.

We weren't sure if this was a good or bad sign. Was it taking long because they decided to approve her? Or were we just lost in the system?

As we waited, we learned more and more families were getting denied for ANYTHING.

Of the families I know with orders to Japan this year, more were denied (and not enrolled in EFMP) than were approved to go.

At around six weeks, Greg asked our overseas screener in Quantico for any sort of status update.

We waited a few more days, with silence.

Finally Greg decided to ICE the Iwakuni Medical Facility. We needed an answer. If it was no, we have a lot to do to get settled and get our stuff back, and our time is running out! If it was yes, we have a lot to do to move our family overseas! We were running out of time, and there was no other option.

The ICE system is a way to get important comments or questions to the people who need to see them. So when he ICE'ed the Iwakuni Medical Facility, he finally got a reply the next morning.

They talked about email traffic and whatnot making it take a long time - I guess we DID get lost in the system?

Then they talked about how they had professionals looking at her case, and their choices were for her health and well being, but they understand if we might be disappointed with the decision.

We had that feeling of dread settle in our bellies at this ominous reply, but only had to wait less than an hour before the Quantico Overseas Screening office called to confirm she had been denied.

They gave us no reason. Just a denial.

Because obviously tearing away her father from her life for no reason is for sure looking out for this child's health and well being.

A few days later we got the report back from the screeners office. Official reason - Eden is unsuitable for Japan.

So literally.....no reason.

So now we deal with it as best as we can.

Greg took the denial to his monitor (the guy in charge of writing orders) so he could get switched to unaccompanied and work on getting our express shipment back.

The monitor was SO confused. "But you were denied EFMP." "Yes." "This isn't even signed by the right people." "This is what the office in Quantico gave me." "Why did she get denied??" "I don't know."

Greg finally got a hold of SOMEONE at the DMO office about our move.

Turns out, someone CANCELLED it completely without telling us.

It wasn't because she got denied the first time, because they wouldn't have had access to that information. They just decided it had been a long time and we probably didn't need it anymore and just cancelled everything.

So we put our PODS into the PODS storage for now. You know, because of the homeless situation.

And then we realized, it was just Eden who had been denied. Everyone else had been approved!

So we figured it out with my mom that the other kids and I were going to go to Japan for a few months and reapply for Eden continuously until she was approved and can join us.

Hahahaha just kidding about that last part!! I mean, WHO WOULD I SEW FOR?! Duh.

So we're at the point where I am officially retiring the family from the US Marine Corps.

After 15 years, we are done. Greg is still going to continue until he feels ready to retire. He wanted to go until he was a CWO5, but there's been a lot building into this that he's more and more ready to ditch the cammies.

....or it might be because of the things we've been doing the past six weeks of waiting that changed our lives, and brought the family out of the USMC for good...

Happy Sewing!!

-Shelley