Day 756. I went to bed at midnight last night, after Emmy had been restless all evening needing comforting. I don't know what time it was, when Emmy joined us in bed, I just know that it kept me from sleeping well, as he wakes up a lot. And then Tammy came too, and our bed is really too small for that. By 6:30 they were all up, and at 7 am we got up for breakfast.
After breakfast we went downstairs, where I turned worship music on and got their Bibles out. Once Randy came, I went upstairs to clean up and then work. I still have so much work to catch up on that I did not do while we were traveling. I talked to Paul on the phone, which was great, but gave me even more things to work on. Even though I was tired, I powered on. I only started cooking at 10:40 because of my phone call with Paul.
And that's why we sat down to eat at 11:15 today. After lunch, the boys went to bed first, while Randy took Tammy downstairs. Once they were asleep, she went to bed as well. Just before 12:30 she was asleep as well.
After having cleaned up, I went back to work. I got extremely tired but made the mistake of never closing my eyes to sleep a little. I got quite a bit done, as the kids slept really long today. Except for Sammy who was the first one up after over an hour. Randy went downstairs with him. Emmy woke up at about 2:30 after 2.5 hours of sleep, and Tammy at 3 pm after 2.5 hours of sleep. I had just started making their food to take to church with us, and still had their clothes to pick up - a lot to do in one hour. And I was very tired. And they were running around, doing their favorite thing, pulling stuff off of shelves.
Just after 4 pm we left. Fall has arrived, and so they had socks, closed shoes and jackets on for the first time. We took the train and then the tram and got to church just before the service started. Because of our trip we hadn't been there in about a month. We went straight up front, where the flags and fabric was already on the steps for everyone to use. Worship started, and at first they sat on the steps with their banners and flags, but soon they got up and started running around. I had Sammy as well who also enjoyed the fabric and being moved around by Mommy.
At 5:30 we went upstairs to the toddler room, while Sammy stayed in the sanctuary with Randy who fed him there. We were one of the first in the room. We sat down at the table to eat, but they were so excited to be back and have all the toys, that they were more insterested in playing. They did come to the table after a little bit and ate some, but left for nearby toys again quickly, so I just put food into their mouths while they were playing. Just before 6 pm Randy brought Sammy upstairs, telling me that he'd been asking for me non-stop. So we sat down by the carpet where the program was gonna start shortly.
All the kids sat down in a circle and the program started with a song, then individual welcome songs. She did a great job teaching them on their level. Our kids were more quiet again, after such a long break, and just sat there the whole time watching, only participating a little. After 15 minutes it was over and time to play.
And they were not shy playing. Sammy likes standing and now starts moving his legs to walk more and more. He has no strength in his torso, so we have to hold him up for him to do so. He has a lot of strength in his hands and arms, and so he clings to whatever he can cling to to hold himself up. In this case the side of the slide. We then all ended up by the play kitchen that they played with until it was time to leave. At 6:30 Randy came to pick up Sammy, while the other two continued playing for a few more minutes. Then we also returned to the sanctuary.
As we were walking down the stairs, they could already see their friend Anna and were excited about it. They played with her a little, but then moved on. We stayed in the back as the service was not yet over. Once it was, we started looking for Sonja and found her. She then walked to the strollers with us, and we put Sammy and the others in and said good-bye to her. Then we walked through the sanctuary to talk to a few people and found my good friend Renate. We talked to her and ended up praying for three people who needed God's intervention. I encouraged the kids to join us, and only Emmy did. In fact he had been saying "beten" (pray) all day long, every time I said we'd be going to church. He put his hand where I told him without needing coercion or me holding his hand there. And as we prayed the power of God touched all three of them. Glorious! God is so good! If only more churches would allow us to come and share and minister. It's hard to make new connections.
We said our good-byes and left to walk to the tram stop. We had to wait for a little bit before it came and made it just in time to the train station to catch our train. Since it was delayed by a few minutes, we actually had some time to wait and gave them some more food. Once we got on the train, there was a visible drunk man sitting right where we were. It's the stroller area, so we can't go anywhere else. After a while he got up to use the bathroom, but it was locked. He walked over to the emergency button and pushed it, and the driver asked him what the emergency was. He complained about the locked bathroom and was told that it was broken. He started complaining more, then walked away and peed right behind the chair where I had been sitting moments earlier. We were already on our feet as we were about to get off. When we got off, I also saw that he had already peed by the emergency button. I was glad, when we were off.
We walked home, and when I glanced on my phone, I saw a few missed calls. We had pre-ordered our dinner for 8:30, and with the delay, we were now arriving home at 8:20. However, the delivery guy had already arrived at 8:10. He was standing by the entrance to our building, smoking, and complained about our late arrival. I pointed out that we had ordered our food for 8:30 and that he had come early. He called his boss to tell him we had arrived and what I had said. Randy gave him a good tip and took the food.
Once inside the apartment we immediately started getting them ready for bed, which took a while. Thankfully they did not need long to fall asleep, and so I could walk away quickly, before it was 9 pm. We went downstairs to eat and watch a movie. My food was already rather cold. Half-way through the movie, having finished eating, we stopped it to finish it next week. It was already late and time to get working again.
Unfortunately I was already pretty tired. I started working on the pictures, and while doing so, my eyes fell shut and I actually fell asleep for good twice. Randy woke me up both times and encouraged me to go to bed. But I still had the kitchen cleanup to do, so I went to work in the kitchen, while Randy went to bed. Then I sat down to write my update, but I simply could not finish it, as I was too tired, and so I turned my computer off and headed to bed. It was midnight.
Before I could even fall asleep, Emmy was crying for me. Unfortunately it was not a short thing of comforting him and him continuing sleeping. For over half an hour I stayed with, as he would not let me go. I was just so tired! I finally gave up and went to bed and let him come to bed with us, against both Randy's and my will, but it was better than not sleeping at all.
