New Moon and the fish

Yesterday Gunnar and I spent the day with the Muckelbauer family. It is my friend Beccy's family. She recently went to the states where her husband is now stationed. Ever since we first met them her family has been so kind to Kyle, Gunnar, and I (like a family away from our families). Beccy's mom Regina watched Gunnar while Helena and I went to the movie New Moon. It was an interesting theatre experience. I could not believe all of the young children that people brought with them, it was awful and a little embarrassing. Gunnar and I stayed the night after the movie, and while it was nice not to have to drive home, Gunnar did not sleep well. I am not sure what is up, but he was constantly waking up and was up from 4-6am. We left around 7 so we could make it to church. We were tired, but enjoyed church none the less.
Here is Sina (Beccy's niece) and Selena (neighbor girl) with Gunnar. He never lacks attention when he is at the Muckelbauers. 

After church we enjoyed a nice long (almost 3 hour) afternoon nap together, we both needed it. While we were napping the phone rang, I heard Kyle's voice on the answering machine and made a dash for the phone but was to late. Luckily we were able to talk about an hour ago. He seems to be doing as well as possible and it was so great to hear his voice.
I also got rid of our fish today. Since I am planning on coming back to the states at some point (I will explain later) and I found a home for them I decided it was time. It was quite the process getting the fish out, we were such babies about the fish, screaming and everything...our husbands would not have been proud. I even had to get one of my male neighbors to help us out, he actually ended up killing the fish that we were having problems with (whoops). Gunnar loves looking at the fish, so I am sure he will miss them, but it will be one less thing to worry about when it gets time for us to leave.

So here is the deal with me leaving, since I get a lot of emails asking when I will be home. Right now I am in limbo, just hanging out not sure what is happening. We put in paperwork to do an early return of dependents (EROD). We did this since Kyle will be exiting the military soon after returning for the deployment and it would be nice for me to get things set up and ready, plus there is nothing for me anymore here in Germany since I am at home with Gunnar. We were told the paperwork takes 2 weeks to go through, it has to be approved by a lot of people. More recently we were told it takes from 10 days to 6 weeks, and they are leaning towards the six weeks since it is the holiday season. So after much deliberation and a lot of praying we have decided this...I will buy a refundable ticket close to Christmas. The only way I will use it is if I know before Christmas that my paperwork has been denied. I would then stay in the states the deployment, but not have our things, and moving would happen after deployment. If the paperwork has not gone through yet, or it was approved we will wait things out here. It would be totally unfair for me to go back and fourth with Gunnar, a 10+ hour flight with a very active, crawling 7 month old is not going to be pleasant, and I do not want to have to do it more than once. While I am sad that I most likely will not be coming home for Christmas I have come to peace with it. I know that I have people here who love and care for us, and Gunnar and I will be okay. Kyle rarely gets to be with family for Christmas and he always survives, and so can we. I am still praying that we find out this week and are able to get our apartment packed up and be home before Christmas so we can enjoy the holiday with our family.

I have a busy day of homework and studying (plus I should do a little cleaning and laundry), so now I am off to bed.