Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented on my last blog. My power was out all yesterday, so I didn't have internet to respond to y'all yesterday. But reading your loving, supportive comments today brought tears to my eyes.

Things are looking better today. My SO and my biggest issue is time spent together. Basically, we are in this culture where husbands/wives don't spend any time together (except sexytime and mealtime) and that just won't cut it for me. My SO struggles to find a balance between spending time with his male friends (in his culture, men sit outside together for hours and hours everyday drinking tea) and with me and Rokia. My SO also lived his whole life outside or in the streets. He never felt at home inside his various homes because he was often living with extended family members who treated him badly or with his own father who was quite harsh, borderline abusive. He has spent all of his time avoiding home so it is hard for him to want to be home now, even if it's with people he loves. There are other factors at play to: unemployment, money struggles, his depression that comes from being unable to provide for his family, etc). Anyway, that is the gist of our main problem. It means that I am alone a lot and feel like he doesn't fulfill my emotional needs the way I wish he could. It's something that we're working on everyday and a problem that we are both very aware of and talk about often. At the very least, I am happy that he recognizes the problem and pushes himself to work on it, even if it's not as much as I'd like.

Anyway, my SO is taking us all to the park today and I really love when he does that and we get to spend some quality family time together.

Okay...so the real reason I wanted to update this blog was to give you a visa update. I emailed the US Embassy on Monday asking them if I could at least come in and get some of our original paperwork back since the process was taking longer than they originally led me to believe. Here is what they responded:


Please be advised that the administrative processing of Rokia’s case should be done by the end of the week. So we will call you in the next few days to pick up the passport with the visa and the original documents.

Best regards,
The Consular Section of the US Embassy Bamako

WHAT?!?!???!?! Did I read that correctly? They just threw in the phrase "passport with the visa" so casually that I am scared to believe it's real. I am sooooo excited but I still want to wait for the official phone call to REALLY freak out! I'll keep you all updated!!

Thanks for being my friends You all have been better friends to me than any of my IRL friends and I feel really blessed to have this group of people in my life.