Dear Army,

Thank you for determining that Xander can get the proper care in Germany, that is quite a relief. I also would like to express my appreciation for stationing a dermatologist at the military health clinic in Bamberg, so that I don't have to wonder stress over whether we'd get approval for Mikayla as well (though, I assume it would be fine anyway, as there are German dermatologists).
Now, if I could just ask one tiny little favor, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd make sure that our "deferred family travel" is optional, and that concurrent family travel is also approved. I will not be in such a thankful state if I have to spend several hours on a plane alone with 3 children, after my husband makes the trip kid-free. This is not my idea of a good time, and if that is what happens, you should also have some mental health professionals on standby when I arrive.
However, you've complied with my requests thus far, so I'm going to choose to have faith that you'll be just as generous in the future.

A girl can dream, can't she?

Dear Army pt 2

Again, with the lack of communication. Come on, people. I call Mr Supervisor who was supposed to call me back on Friday. He gets Mrs A on the other line so he can switch back and forth between us. (Really? Our tax dollars can't buy this man a phone set up to do 3-way?) He wants to know which files are missing from the packet. I'm dumbfounded, as this was the information he was supposed to be finding for me! I tell him I don't know, that's what I't trying to find out. He sounds confused and puts me on hold so that he can talk to Mrs A. A few minutes later, he comes back and tells me basically everything I've told him. He just repeat it all back to me. "Well, ma'am, basically, we are trying to find out what files are missing, because we thought the packet was complete. [We, being, he and Mrs A] They didn't tell you what the files were?"
"Umm... Mrs A is the one who told me that they told her that files were missing. I have no idea!"
"Oh. Right. Well, then, what I'm going to do is call 1st perscomm first thing tomorrow and find out what it is, then. So you call me back tomorrow."

Well, I'm glad we got that settled. I never knew it took three days just to explain that no one knows what files are missing.

UPDATE -
Communication skills still leave plenty to be desired, but I have answers. Mrs A said she talked to "them" and there were no files missing. Mr Supervisor talked to "them" and it turns out they just needed to know if he needed a regular urologist or a pediatric one. That's all settled, and he thinks we should be approved.

Dear Army

I have a few requests.
First of all, we had a bit of a cold snap here last week, which reminded me that I hate the cold. It was very cold. Heavy coats and gloves were required and I lose things way too often to need so many layers in a single outing. These last few days though have been lovely. I am hereby requesting that you move our family to a location of a similar climate. I'd prefer for 50-75% of the year to be between 70 and 80 degrees, and the remaining 25-50% to be between 80 and 90 degrees. The average high should not involve heat stroke, and the average low should not include mittens.

Next up is your apparent procrastination. You've really got to work on this. I'm making an effort, I think you can do the same. There really is no reason why it should take the next eight months for you to decide whether Xander can be treated in Germany or not.
Let me simple it up for you: He needs to see a urologist once a year. Now, there are three military urologists in Germany and their priority is active duty members, and they mainly see wounded soldiers. So question one is, is it reasonable to assume that they'd be able to fit us in? If so, great. If not, the logical next question is whether we can use German doctors. This gets tricky because they don't treat kidney reflux the same over there, and the best bet is to just say no in this case (too complicated to detail here). So the next question is, can we just come home to the US once a year for these tests? If not, then you stamp a big "denied!" on our forms and we go back to the drawing board on our assignment.
IS that really so hard? If I can detail it in 3 minutes (and field two phone calls at the same time) then surely you can do it in less than eight months. Seriously.

Finally, there is a serious communication flaw when I get a phone call from lovely woman A saying that she got an email from 1st Perscomm letting them know that the people in EFMP in Germany say there's some information missing from my file, and that I need to contact EFMP here to see what the deal is... and then when I call the lovely woman B at EFMP she has to get lady A's number so she can call her and find out what the deal is, then calls me back to say she'll talk to her supervisor, Mr C, so that he can talk to 1st Perscomm and see what is missing. How bout you all just give me the number to 1st Perscomm and let me sort it out? Seriously.

Love (or, in this case, annoyedly),
Kelly

"That's up to you..."

This was the most common answer at our meeting today. Right. It's up to us where he goes and what he does, and whether it's counted against his leave, etc... in the month between school and his report date. Entirely up to us? Yeah, I don't think so. And other such nonsense.
She did let me know who CAN answer my questions - many of them will be answered by the transportation people, and we can talk to them once we've got our orders, which should be in a couple months.
And we've now got the information about getting passports and our medical sign-off, both of which will allow us to go to Germany with him.
So it was less than thrilling. Next stop - relocation briefing next Thursday.