26 months 17 days

Day 809. Last night was tough. I headed to bed at 12:20, but Emmy came right away and simply would not lie down in his bed, but kept coming to our bed, standing next to me. By 1 am or so I'd had enough and let him climb into bed with us, even though I was not excited about it. And then I took the girl back to her bed several times, until giving up on her as well and letting her join us in bed. I had not even slept yet, and it was already 2 am or so. And here I was, crammed, with Emmy on my left and Tammy on my right, unable to move and my arms going numb from their weight. It was not a good night.

I got up at 7:10 to make breakfast for them. After breakfast and dressing them I took them downstairs, where I got their Bibles out and we sat down to read Bible stories. Once Randy came with his breakfast, I left them to go upstairs, where I cleaned up and then sat down to do office work. It was leftover day, which gave me more time to work as I did not have to cook. I could hear Sammy being pretty cranky during the last half hour, before I called them upstairs to eat at noon.

Today Emmy barely ate anything, and Tammy didn't eat much more. Both of them wanted squeezie drinks (fruit/vegetables), but I didn't give them any puddings. Then they went into the bathtub, where they enjoyed the water coming down from the shower head. Sammy joined them, and I fed him the rest of his high-calorie pudding. After a while all three came out. The boys went to bed, Randy sat down with them, and I went downstairs with Tammy. They were tired and fell asleep fast. By 12:40 the boys were sleeping. Tammy was watching "Barbapapa" downstairs, and just before 1 pm we also went upstairs and she went straight to bed, all by herself. Randy was right there with her, and she was soon asleep. Once again all three were sleeping at the same time.

I had it on my heart to try to call immigration regarding Randy's permit. We applied for the extension in June, and since then we'd regularly received letters asking for documents. Just last week we received a letter where they asked for a document that didn't even make sense, and I emailed them my response. With our upcoming departure, time was getting short, as he could have trouble returning to Austria without the permit. Randy and I went downstairs to call them, to be as far away as possible from the kids. I made the call, was surprised they picked up, and then the lady asked to speak with Randy himself. When he said he only spoke English, he was transferred to another person. But he soon handed the phone back to me, and I switched back to German. I was also passed on to another person. What we found out was that it looked like they had everything they needed and could issue the card. I was told that time was short though and that we needed to get something for the passport in case he didn't get the card in time. An hour or two later they called us again. I picked up, but they wanted to talk to Randy. They told Randy that they would send him a letter with a day and time of when to come pick up the card, just before we leave. Praise God!

We went back upstairs. So at least one of the many issues I've been working on to resolve resolved. The kids kept sleeping, while I was working, and I knew they would not sleep at night if they didn't wake up soon. Then the doorbell rang. It was an Amazon delivery. The girl had just woken up, around 2:45, and thanks to the doorbell Emmy came running too. He was not gonna miss a package! There were three packages, and I cut them open to let the kids get the content out. There was kids' silverware for them for Mali, as well as two new and beautiful kids' Bibles, and another item for Mali. They were so excited about their stuff! They wanted to take the Bibles downstairs with them, which they did, and their snacks went downstairs as well. Sammy was also awake.

I was gonna go back upstairs to work, but they wanted me to stay and read the Bibles with them. I stayed a few minutes, but I also needed to leave, and I wanted to make sure the Bibles were safe. Tammy cried so hard, when I took the new Bible away! And they were not happy at all, when I left them.

I ended up getting a lot done, talking to Paul, and writing a new email newsletter, and even getting the German translation done. At 4:45 pm I stopped and started making their dinner, which took half an hour. At 5:15 I went downstairs to spend quality time with my children. Randy went upstairs, and Tammy wanted to look at photobooks, and so we looked at the pictures of our last time in Mali. There were balloons on some pictures, and so I mentioned that I could get some right now. Tammy and Emmy were excited, but Emmy shook his head saying no. I went to get two balloons and blew them up. And that's when Emmy started crying in fear. Since when was he afraid of balloons again? I never understood why he was, but he was terrified of those balloons and cried the whole time. Sammy however was enjoying playing with the balloon I had given him.

The room was quite a mess, and so I decided it was time to start tidying up, but nobody helped me. Emmy was in the swing, crying and watching the balloon, while Tammy preferred pulling stuff out of shelves rather than putting them in. I could never get them to help at all. Once everything looked decent just before 6 pm, I turned the lights off, and we all went upstairs to eat. Tammy and Emmy were both sitting in their seats and eating their soup, thank God, with Emmy also eating some bread, but that was it. Tammy wanted once again a squeezie drink, and I gave her and her brother one each that they drank. Then I combined the rest of their food on one plate, and they were already off to the bathtub.

They were having fun in the bathtub and ate more than they have been with me. Sammy once again ate everything on his plate. After having played for quite some time, it was time to come out of the water, which is a lot of work. By 7 pm all three were in bed. Randy sat down with them, and while they were still awake for a while, they fell asleep rather quickly considering today. I was doing office work at the same time. By the time Randy left them to make his dinner, I was also ready to grab something to eat. After having eaten I continued working. And that's how it somehow got late, and so I've been having a hard time keeping my eyes open while writing. And I have yet to do the cleanup before going to bed.