here comes the sun

It's a gloomy Monday morning but I'm listening to Yuna's cover of Here Comes the Sun and I'm going to believe her.  With the news coming out of Mali - it's hard to imagine brighter days for a country that means so much to Abdoulaye and me (and so many others!!).  We're closely following the news and hoping swift military action is what is needed to stop the terror and praying it will get better soon.

I know it's going to be a great week despite the gloom outside because I woke up to a text this morning from USCIS letting me know Abdoulaye's green card application is in their hot little hands - let another immigration waiting game begin!  I feel much better about this waiting game since Abdoulaye is already here in the US to play it with me :)

After entering in all of our dates into the visajourney website (if you're looking for a site to help you along with the visa process - look no further!!), it spit out that Abdoulaye's employment authorization forms should be processed in mid-late March, which will allow him to work.  By then, he'll be 3/4 of the way done with his English classes at Language ETC and ready to take on the labor force!

My sister, Lindsay, and her boyfriend, Dan, came up this weekend for a friend's birthday and we reveled in the chance to hang out and visit around the apartment.  We're so blessed to have such treasures for family - looking forward to more visits already!!

I hope your week is off to a great start!  See more pictures from our DC gallivanting here :)

Frankenstorm brings winds of change for Abdoulaye's K-1 visa!!!

This weekend I came down to Virginia Beach to celebrate my Memaw's 87th birthday and attend a dinner in my dad's honor (way to go you both!!).  Hurricane Sandy decided I shouldn't head back to DC until Wednesday (Amtrak trains canceled on Monday and not available until then!) and so I've been playing Clue and Trouble with my mom and cousin Elaine (in between writing papers for school :)

All of my activities came to a standstill when I received the following text message from USCIS regarding Abdoulaye's K-1 fiancé visa (I-129F):

Your case EACXXX is now updated.  Check "May Case Status" at www.uscis.gov...

This means his papers are getting ready to leave the Vermont processing center and head to Senegal. After jumping up and down and yelling so much that John turned up the volume on the television, I caught my breath and called Abdoulaye to share the news.  What next?  he asked.  Good question!  Now I'll see what I need to do and we'll start planning for Abdoulaye's interview in Senegal - hoping he'll be here in early December!!  OAA is officially back on the move!

Sunday night Skyping with cousin-in-law Matt and Mom

John loves Skyping with Abdoulaye!

Trying to be as cute as this one.

Mali, OAA, and Atlantic Shores

Lunch with the PEO gals at Atlantic Shores (Memaw to my right).  

Reading articles like this one and this one about Mali are painful (I also really don't like this one, which highlights the junta's targeting/fear of other West Africans in Mali).  I am hesitant to write about Mali for fear of contributing to her bad press image (although, I'm certainly not against reading posts that show Mali's democracy for what it really was - not much).   I know my blog could serve as more of an awareness-raising platform and I suppose that's what I'm trying to do right now.  Sigh.  I also prefer to read first-hand analyses (this one in English) of what is going on (and assume others would, too!).

While I haven't been writing about Mali, I have been talking a lot about her (just ask any of my family members, thanks for your patience, guys!).  It has been wonderful to have so many thoughtful friends, family members, and friends of the family listen, and talk with me, about my time in Mali and what is happening now.  Thank you.

In other news, I received a text message at 1:40am confirming the receipt of Abdoulaye's K-1 fiancé visa application.  I guess U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) never sleeps!  Step 1 1/2 of OAA done!  Now I'm just waiting for Form I-797 to come in the mail.  By the end of this process I'll be a regular K-1 fiancé visa expert - glad I'll only be doing it once, though!

While Visa Journey puts the current processing time in Vermont (where it was sent from Texas - VT processes visa applications from Virginia-based American fiancés in case you cared to know!) at about 5 months before the application is sent to its final destination in Senegal, I'm hoping they'll see how cute Abdoulaye is (I included pictures of us as proof of our relationship) and that he really needs to come to America sooner to contribute to our cute-i-tivity (thank you Kira for connecting me with the website!).  Fingers crossed!

Coming tomorrow - a video from our trip to Guinea.  Remember Morocco?