Or in English: Army wife meets German life. Four weeks and three days ago I got news from my husband that rocked my world: We have orders to Germany. After about five minutes of asking him if he was serious I finally started to believe him, even if I was still in shock. I went though so many emotion in a matter of seconds: scared, confused, shocked, nervous, sad and yet also excited and grateful for such an incredible opportunity. Now that I knew it was real, I was in too much shock and excitement to keep it to myself long enough to tell my family in person so it was time to make phone calls. I was expecting my mom to cry and my dad to take it in stride, however, my dad seemed the most shocked, my brother was the most upset, and my mom was so excited for us that she couldn't even be a little sad, which makes me glad I told her last. Also my best friend, Sarah, was rather upset at first but we are now too busy planning our European adventures to be upset. Once the phone calls were done I immediately sent emails to other Army wives that I knew were living in Germany. I could tell from the responses that the moving process was going to be very involved so I decided to blog about it so that there would be information out there about the moving process and then things to do over in Germany.
I wanted to write a blog as soon as I found out so that I would be more in tune with my original emotions but my computer hates me and was broken until today so that was not an option. On the plus side things have already started to happen with our moving processes so I have more than just emotions to talk about. Daniel got an email about two or three weeks ago with about 15 attachments and an email that said he had a levy briefing that he would have to attended in a week in a half and he would have to fill all of the forms attached out and bring them with him. This is where I will take a moment to insert my first tip: most of these documents will not open on your computer. I had to go on post because I didn't have the right program to open them with and also because my computer was broken so I couldn't even download the program if I wanted to. Now you might have a husband who takes care of all of his own paper work and you will never have to worry about this or many other pieces of the moving process; I don't. So after I printed and fill out the paper work(and put post- it notes on all of them so Daniel would know what to do with them) and arranged my day to go the briefing with him someone told him that spouses weren't allowed to go; he was wrong, there were lots of wives there. Not only did it piss me off that this guy was wrong I now only had what Daniel thought was important enough to write down, and believe me most of it doesn't even make sense; there is a phone number on there that he doesn't even know what it was for other than it must have been important. So if you plan to be in the know about the move I suggest you attend.
The last tip that I want to add is that when you find out you moving to Germany (or anywhere OCONUS) I highly recommend that all dependents that haven't had a physical in less than a year get an appointment for one ASAP and an appointment will need to be made with EFMP within 30 days of the levy briefing or dependents will not be permitted to travel. You will also need to bring all medical records with you for anyone not seen on post, like me. DO NOT wait until you arrive for your physical and ask for them right then and there; I did this and the receptionist was very snippy with me and only obliged because my records were so short. We have another briefing in 10 days (that I will be going to no matter who says) and I will update after that, or before if anything new comes to light.
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