27 months 1 day

Day 824. Last night I went to bed at midnight, but it was a long time before I got any sleep. All the kids were suffering from the effects of the shots they had had earlier in the day. Sammy was crying a lot all evening, and Emmy woke up every few minutes, running up to us and needing us to hold him before we could put him back to bed, and it all continued after I went back to bed. I finally let Emmy join us in bed. He stayed for a long time, then he said he was going back to his own bed and left. The girl also came and joined us at some point, and she was also hurting and kept saying that she was hurting. I think it was her arm where she had had the shot. Emmy returned at 7 am, and soon they were up for good. At 7:30 I also got up to make their breakfast.

After breakfast I told them that it might have snowed at night and built up their anticipation, telling them we'd go downstairs and then look outside to see whether there was snow. The weather report had said that it would start snowing at midnight, so I expected everything to be white. They got pretty excited and eager to go downstairs. When I opened the blinds, I was disappointed to see no snow at all. It was a few hours later that it started snowing, and it snowed really hard. However, they never went outside today, and by tomorrow it might all be gone already.

I got their Bibles out, and we read a few stories. Then I started praying, and Emmy immediately wanted me to pick him up and pray for him, and so I did. I then did the same for the other two, and then Randy already came with his breakfast, and so I left.

I was pretty tired, but I finished cleaning up and then sat down at the computer to work. At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to cook. The kids downstairs were rather cranky, especially Sammy, and so Randy was impatent for them to come up to eat and came up a few minutes early. Sonja arrived at noon to give us very much needed assistance for one hour. She sat down with the kids to eat, while I finishing cooking and getting all the plates ready. Emmy ate some meat, while Tammy ate nothing. It wasn't long before they were off to play in the bathtub. I fed Sammy his special pudding, and then the other two also got to eat their puddings, as we still have more than they can eat by Sunday night, which is when we leave.

Emmy was pretty upset, when I got him out, right after Sammy, and he kept saying "Sonja" and "unten" (downstairs). Tammy always goes downstairs with Sonja, while the boys go to bed. As it was only 12:30, I agreed to let him go downstairs with Sonja and Tammy, and he was overjoyed. 15 minutes later I went to get him to put him to bed, and he was crying at first. Once in bed it did not take him long to fall asleep.

At 1 pm it was Tammy's turn to go to bed, and she did not protest. She also fell asleep quickly. I'd like for that to become the norm.

When I had put her to bed, she had asked for Daddy, just as Emmy had done, and I had told them both that he wasn't here. Five months ago Randy had applied to extend his permit to stay in Austria, and they kept asking for more papers, and more papers, and he'd still not received it. Last week he finally received a letter to come pick it up today - less than 3 days before we leave for Mali, and on the last work day before then. If it hadn't been nap time, we might have all gone, but as it was, he had to go by himself. Sonja left at 1 pm, when the last kid went to bed.

After they had fallen asleep, I went downstairs to my office and laid out our last two (and main) suitcases to pack and my carry-on, and took care of some papers. And then Randy already returned with his new permit that is now valid for three years, thank God! One burden resolved. I continued working, but before it was even 2 pm, Sammy started crying, and so I went upstairs to get him and brought him downstairs. Only minutes later Emmy woke up and he also came downstairs. When he saw that Sonja was not there, he started crying. She's usually there, when he wakes up, and I always tell him he can see her after, when he does not want to sleep. Obviously I had not done so today, and he had spent time downstairs before going to bed.

At some point I was able to pull away and went upstairs to work. At 3 pm I turned the ocean waves off, and within minutes Tammy woke up. I grabbed their afternoon snacks and went downstairs with her as well. A friend was gonna come visit with her family some time between 3 and 4 pm, and so I told them that children were coming, and they got more and more excited. We could not really get them to eat hardly anything. They wanted to watch Barbapapa, and I let them, and then they wanted to watch babies. Randy does not like them watching stuff, but they were cranky. I tried to leave to go work, but Randy turned the phone off, and Emmy started crying, so I let him come upstairs with me, and then Tammy wanted to come to. As we were expecting our visitors any time, they'd be ready to welcome them. Little did I know that they were coming a lot later than expected. And so they first watched a little, and then played, and then we called Grandma and they got to spend quite a bit of time with her. They were running up and down, jumping and dancing for her. Randy and Sammy also came upstairs at some point, and so Sammy also got to see Grandma.

We hung up, and I was communicating with our friends who had trouble finding us. FINALLY the doorbell rang, and they were there. We hadn't seen them in over two years, so it was a joyful reunion. We gave them a tour of the apartment and ended up in the living room. We had so much fun catching up with each other, and the kids making new friends. Since they had come so late, it was obvious that our schedule was not gonna work today, if I wanted to spend time with them. At 6 pm we all went upstairs to our dining room. They had already had snack, but I got some bread, salami and fruit out, and then Randy brought the puddings, which they don't usually eat at night. Everybody got some food, but it was all a mess and rather stressful, with our friends joining us at the table.

I finally put them into the bathtub, and Randy brought Sammy. They ate some more puddings in the water. While I was with them, Randy was outside with our visitors. I was a little stressed and quickly said my good-byes while kneeling on the floor and holding Sammy in the water. Tammy wanted out, and so we got them all out and ready for bed. By 7 pm they were in bed, and our friends were just leaving.

I sat down by their beds. It looked like they were going to sleep quickly, but then they were suddenly up and throwing their pillows and comforters out, and Randy took my place. Tammy was not happy about that. She said "Mama sitzen" (Mommy sitting down) and kept calling for me. So I returned after a while, but then Emmy was up again, and so we switched one more time, which she was not happy about, but by then she was already close to sleeping. It took over an hour before they were all asleep.

I did some more office work, then got something to eat, before continuing work. It's getting late now. I still have to clean up, and I'm not sure if I can start packing those two suitcases tonight or not.