Searching for Hope

Good afternoon everyone!  I've been a bit drained the last several days.  We moved to the post lodge on Friday.  My friend is very pregnant and her husband had just returned home from training.  So we wanted give them precious family time before their new bundle of joy arrives.  We checked into the lodge which is decent but I'm still slightly depressed that we haven't gotten an offer on a home yet.  We had wanted to live on post due to the electricity and heating bills we would have to face if we lived off post. But, after my phone call to the housing office today, it had made me feel like we were losing ground again.

The woman who answered my call was very nice and courteous but I still feel sad.  We arrived on post on  March 5th.  Now that it is April, we were hoping that we would have received an offer by now.  But, I was informed that we have till April 10th to receive an offer and if we do not, we will be dropped down the waiting list because we had surpassed our 60 day waiting period.  This is totally frustrating.  Everywhere else that we have lived with the exception of Oklahoma, we received housing within the first two weeks we arrived.

I guess when the military decided to expand Fort Drum, they forgot to build an abundance of homes to accommodate the growing family population that needs homes to live in.  So, now the post is in the process of building new homes, but have no space for newcomers like ourselves to stay at aside from The Inn on post.  With that said, I have another challenge to face..

Registering my Kindergartener for school.  When we left Hawaii in February, we had hoped that we would receive housing right away in order to register our son for school.  But, due to the costs of living in a hotel for 60 days or more, we thought we could tough it out.  It's a good thing I'm like a mini drill sergeant having both kids doing schoolwork or something productive during the day so that they can be ahead once they go to school.  I can't even attempt to register my daughter for Pre-K because we don't know what area we will be at.  So I guess once I have Adam registered sometime this week for school, he will have to stay at that school till the next school year.

I'm trying to stay positive, trying to chill, trying not to dwell on it.  But it's difficult.  If we can't find a house to call home within the next two weeks, we will have to find a house off post.  It was something that we knew could happen but just not what we were hoping for.  I know that everything happens for a reason but still.  It would have been nice to be on post, close to the commissary, and not worry too much about being in a secure location.