I've been stressing over our future plans recently and I though maybe getting them down on "paper" would help and maybe you all have some words of wisdom or some idea I haven't thought of yet.

If you remember my "potential plan" blog, I had (in the comments) kind of decided that Amina, Rokia and I would go to the US for the summer, then Rokia would come back to Mali to be with my SO until their visa was ready. My number one worry with that was Rokia flying back here as an unaccompanied minor and how hard/scary/sad that would be for her. And then today, looking at prices, I just don't know if the plan is feasible anymore. A round-trip Bamako/Utah ticket is $2300. And one-way is $1800. So Rokia flying round-trip and Amina and I flying one-way would be incredibly expensive. Not to mention that I was hoping to be able to fly back to Africa eventually to be there for my SO's visa interview to help him through the process.

Now I'm wondering if any of this is possible. Another option (although it sucks because Rokia won't get to see her grandparents), is for Amina and I to stick around Bamako for most of the summer and then we fly to the US in Aug/Sept and start looking for a job and a place to live. Then my SO and Rokia follow around December/January (just guessing on dates here). It would save us $2300. And then Rokia wouldn't have to fly alone at any point.

A side worry is organization. My SO is not very organized and he isn't used to filling out forms, etc. I would do as much of the visa stuff as possible but, in the end, he'd have to show up for his interview alone and do that process without me. I'm wondering if it may be worth the $1400 flight for me to go to Senegal and help him through the medical and visa processes. Plus, I'd get to see Rokia again then (she'll have to go to Senegal for the visa interview/medical stuff too). To be honest, I worry that he doesn't have the skills to do it without me. But maybe I'm not giving him enough credit.