27 months 15 days

Day 838. It was close to 12:30 am, when I went to bed. Emmy was already sleeping next to Daddy, and the girl woke up in her bed and wanted to also sleep in our bed, but sleep with me, and I was not done working. I kept telling her I was coming soon. She just wouldn't fall asleep without me. I had to hold her for a while, while typing on the computer, and then she let me put her to bed, when I had to give Sammy some milk. Once I went to bed, she was still rather restless for the rest of the night. Onee  time she woke up and was asking for something, but I did not know what the word she was saying meant. She threw a fit, becoming hysterical, repeating the word over and over. I finally got up with her and followed her pointed hand, but it wasn't leading anywhere. I had no choice but to lie back down with her and let her keep crying, trying to hold her and comfort her. It was only after I started singing in tongues that he finally got quiet and fell asleep in my arm.

In the morning she was the one up at 6 am. The noise then woke Sammy up. Emmy woke up last. At 6:30 I had to get up myself. We opened the door and found the cats waiting for us. Emmy carried the little bag of wet cat food to the kitchen, where I gave it to them. Monster, the black cat that won't let anyone touch her, even ate some of it with the kids closeby, when she's usually too scared of them.

Then I started making their food - cereal and omelet - while the kids were playing in their play area. Randy got up and started changing their diapers and bringing them back and putting them into their high chairs. By the time they were back, I was also done. Thankfully they like omelet, as that is something that's easy to make and find the ingredients for in Mali. They also ate watermelon and pineapple, and Sammy his cereal. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went to the living room to open the advent calendars, and then read the Bible. I need to find a way to get Emmy to stay with us to read the Bible.

Then I left them to go do office work. I decided to close the bedroom door, so I could work, when they immediately started coming. Emmy was crying hard on the other side of the door, but left after a while. It wasn't long before I was called, as Amadou had come over to work. I asked him to spend some time playing with them which he did. They say Amadou's name all day long, more often than Paul's. Just before 10 Margit came over, and she started playing with them. And Amadou went to work.

We now have 52 children in our sponsorship program, and we make gift bags for all of them for Christmas, which is a lot of work. It's the first time that Amadou was helping with that; last year he was still one of our kids himself. He did the first round of putting stuff we had bought into the bags. We still have more rounds to do, with candy, stickers, balloons, and the like.

At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to start cooking. After half an hour I found out that Randy had unplugged our steamer that I make the rice with, but thankfully the rice cooked faster than expected. I made the Malian national dish today - rice with peanut sauce, as Paul had bought a huge bucket of peanut "butter" right on the first day. We were able to sit down to eat right after noon. Tammy and Emmy ate a little, but not very much. The three of them together did eat a big yoghurt, with Tammy eating the most.

Then I took them to the bathroom to clean them up and dress them. It was nap time. I gave Emmy the medicine he has to drink once a day and put the creme on his body. Thankfully his skin nearly back to normal now.  Then we sat down next to them so they would sleep. By 1:15 they were all asleep, and I sat down by the computer to continue working.

But by 2 pm I was so very tired myself that I just had to lie down. I knew that it was risky as we'd all sleep too long again, but I did it anyway. The girl was sleeping in their bed, and so I lay down next to Emmy, who was the only one in our bed. I had just made myself comfortable, when Sammy woke up. It was 2:15, but he had fallen asleep right away, so he had slept about 90 minutes. I got back up and took him to Randy, then lay back down.

It was 3:45, when Tammy woke up, realized that she was not in our bed and came climbing to where we were. Emmy was up seconds later, and so we all got up and went to the living room. Margit was already there. Most of the time she shows the kids videos, even though we're not so happy with the kids watching so much stuff. Emmy asked to see the sheep again, and so Amadou brought one baby sheep over. It stayed inside for a while, and all the kids, including Amaga and Esther, petted it. Amaga was hitting it more than petting it, but we showed him how to do it. Even Emmy was losing his fear and petting the sheep at the end.

Sleeping long had shortened our time until dinner. Paul came over at one point, and I was great to have a little time to talk to him. And then it was already time to get dinner ready. I turned the water in the bathtub on and went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, making an omelet and cutting salami and fruit. Just before 6 pm we sat down to eat. They didn't eat much of the omelet tonight.

After dinner I took them to the bathtub one after another, where they were having fun for a while. Then we got them out and got them ready for bed. Randy read a Bible story, I prayed for them, and then we tried to get them to lie down. Sammy fell asleep fast tonight, not having slept long like the others. It was a different story for the other two. Tammy was asleep faster, by 7:45 or so, but Emmy needed a little more time, until 8 pm. I stayed with him, while Randy was getting his dinner ready. Then it was my turn. I got my salad from the fridge and sat down by the computer to eat. Once I was done, i went back to work. Thanks to my nap, I'm not falling asleep while writing tonight. And thankfully they have all slept all evening so far, and are all in their own bed now. Perfect time for me to go asleep, having a kid-free bed.