Picking Orders

We've told our parents our Shore Duty picks this month so I thought I'd share on here as well...even though I posted a few days ago that we had started the process but I didn't give any details.  First some background knowledge.  Each set of orders available needs to be filled that month.  Therefore what is on the list this month will not be on the list the next month...nor was it on the list the month before.  You get three looks at orders before the Navy picks...although they might just go ahead and pick for you anyway!  You get five picks and you rank them in order of your most to least desirable pick.  We may not get picked for any of these orders at all...and then we would re-pick next month.  However, each time you have to re-pick the probability of the Navy picking for you increases. 

Okay...so here it is!
1. Sigonella, Italy..In Sicily
2. Iwakuni, Japan (Marine Base)
3. Pensacola, FL
4. Miramar, CA in San Diego (Marine Base)
5. Fallon, NV

Getting Italy is very very unlikely...not many spots and tons of people pick it!  We have a few strikes against us for the overseas orders.  One being that we have one too many dependents.  We would have to get a waiver.  Now if it was Yokosuka or the G.W. it wouldn't be a problem.  They need to fill the spots here...do they need to fill the spots as quickly there?  We don't know...nor do we know if someone else that picked those orders is more desirable than us because they don't have more than 2 children.  I should note that the limit on two children simply is because of the availability of homes big enough to accommodate a larger family.  Also in between back to back overseas duties the Navy will pay for you and your family to fly back to your home of record.  So therefore should we get either one of our top two picks the Navy would have to pay to fly the five us back to Indiana.  And in a tight budget time that would be strike for us.  On the positive it would cost the Navy less money to move us to Italy or to Iwakuni, Japan compared to a family living in the U.S.

I hope that I explained all of that clear enough!  So I'll add like I did in the other posts.  If you feel inclined please lift up a prayer for us that we end up where we need to be!