It's almost been a year since we started this horrible process. And the whole time I've been counting on an October or November interview. I had done all of the calculations based on others' timelines and I was pretty certain it wouldn't go past November. Then the National Visa Center had to double their processing times recently because of how many applications they receive. So unfortunately, I think we're looking at a January or February interview.

I finally was able to pay the IV bill today (LB, you know what I'm talking about). Unfortunately, I can't send in the civil documents yet because Malian immigration is taking forever to finish my husband's passport thanks to the influx of passports for people going to Mecca. So hopefully, we can get the passport soon. Assuming we are able to send the documents in next month, that would mean mid-December for case complete, which would mean a February interview.

So with this new information, we've made a family decision- move the fuck out of Mali and over to Senegal while we wait for the interview. My job ends on October 31st, so then if we take a few weeks to sell things, pack, etc, we could be leaving at the end of November, beginning of December. The plan is to get a furnished apartment in Senegal and stay there for the 2-3 months that it takes to get an interview. We were going to have to be in Senegal for 2-3 weeks anyway for medical exams/interview (the US embassy in Mali doesn't do interviews for immigrant visas), so why not make it a few months? It'll (hopefully) be a mini-fresh start before the big fresh start.

Please pray to the Malian passport gods for me!