Nothing that exciting has happened, but I figure I've got to celebrate the small victories! I had lunch last week with a woman who I work with but don't know very well. She is new to Mali and listening to all of the things she does reminded me how motivated and outgoing I was when I first moved here. There is something about Mali that really sucks the energy and motivation right out of you. So after 4 years here, I find myself sitting around being miserable but not doing anything to change it. It helps me understand why my SO is the way he is after 12+ years here.

Anyway, listening to her, I decided I needed to stop sitting around all of the time and force myself out of the house a bit more. I started going to yoga class again (my original excuse for stopping was that it was too expensive and I could just do it solo, for free, at home). My new friend from work came with me and it was really nice to get out of the house and not be "mama" or "Mrs. Laura" for a couple of hours.

This week, I'm also working on not being too lazy to make plans with people who I like but that live on the other side of town. So I met up with these 2 girlfriends that I met during an English teacher training in Senegal. They are a riot and people I genuinely enjoy spending time with. I've just been isolating myself I guess because it's easier.

Then I called this Malawian woman that I had met at the pediatrician's office 2 months ago. We had hit it off in the waiting room and exchanged numbers but then I never called her. Went to her house on Wednesday and had an awesome time. We got along so well and she was a really great person to talk to about everything. She was especially helpful in listening to some of my relationship problems and giving me another perspective, since she understands African families, interracial marriages (her husband is German), and how it feels to live in Mali (she's also sick of it but staying because of her husband's work). She's a fashion designer and has 2 kids: a 13 year old and an 8 month old. We're meeting up again tomorrow with our kids at the park and I'm really looking forward to it.

Family update: Everything is good with my girls. I'm reading this book called Positive Discipline and I love all of the ideas in it. Now I just need to figure out how to apply them because in the heat of the moment, I find myself going back to unproductive methods (yelling, lecturing, etc). Amina had her 3 month check up last week and it went well. She's a little over 15 lbs- big baby! She had more vaccinations and screamed her little head off. Poor babe.

Things with my SO are a little more ups than downs recently. He's been really on top of his responsibilities this past week so hopefully that'll continue. I am keeping strong and being hopeful that things will change eventually, whether that's here or in the States. I think the change of country will do us good. We're working on some of his and Rokia's documents for the next step of the visa so we can be prepared when things start moving.

Here are my beautiful girls hanging out on the couch:


And here is what my super messy life looks like right now so you can imagine it