27 months 21 days

Day 844. Last night I headed to bed before 11:30. But it ended up being one of the worst nights in Mali yet. Now that we have added more water to the mattress, we have even less room on it, and we struggled all night, them waking up, moving them, keeping them from falling off, Sammy wanting milk... It went like that all night long. I was exhausted, when I got up later than usual, at 7:30, because Sammy had been crying hard for a while. Randy and the other kids were fast asleep, but I cannot ignore one of my kids crying. Sammy had been the only one getting a good night's sleep.

We fed the cats, and then I started making the kids' and my breakfast - omelet, cereal, and oatmeal with milk. After breakfast we cleaned them up and dressed them, and then we read a Bible story, followed by opening the advent calendars. I cleaned up in the kitchen and went to the back to do office work. I closed my door, but from the very beginning they were crying hard and wanted to come in to be with me. Tammy was crying so hard that I finally opened the door. No chance to work in peace! They wanted to do some drawing, so I gave them paper and crayons, but they didn't stay with it for long.

I was glad, when Amadou finally came and brought the sheep. Later he also went to get some chicks. And he stayed for quite some time to play with them, which was great, especially for Emmy who constantly asks for Amadou.

Just after 11 am I went to the kitchen to start cooking. Amadou kept them busy until lunch time, throwing both Sammy and Emmy around. At noon we sat down to eat.

They ate well today, though not everything on their plate, and had some yoghurt as well. Tammy enjoys putting her hands into her bowl and spreading the food everywhere, and today Emmy copied her with the yoghurt. I took them both to the bathtub to rinse them off, which especially Tammy did not appreciate at all. She was screaming as if the bathtub was a terrible place.

Then it was nap time. Somehow it was earlier than usual, just about 12:30. They were really tired, and so I thought they'd fall asleep quickly but that was not the case. Sammy fell asleep quickly, Emmy around 1 pm, and Tammy was giving us a hard time. In the end she fell asleep with me sitting in the chair with her. It was 1:20, when I put her down asleep.

Just before 2:30 I finally reached the point of being so tired myself that I could not continue working but needed to lie down, which I did. I lay down between Emmy and Tammy. One time Tammy rolled over and got so close to the edge that I had to "catch" her. I moved her, which she did not appreciate at all. She decided to go into her own bed, where she lied down and continued sleeping.

It was after 3 pm, when she suddenly started crying and got up, climbed over the railing to where I was, and lay down on me. Sammy was up and must have woken her up. And he was crying, wanting out, so that I had to get up and get him and take him to Randy. Tammy did not stay in bed without me, but got up as well and went into the living room as well. At 3:30 Emmy had already been asleep for 2.5 hours, so I woke him up. And then Randy came in with Tammy to change her diaper.

Margit was already here and stayed until the prayer meeting at 5 to play with them. I also spent a lot of time with them as the door to my room was open. I let them watch some videos, and we made some video calls. Paul came over and spent some time talking with me and playing with the kids. Time just went by so very fast. Before I knew it it was time to start making dinner, at 5:30, and we sat down to eat just before 6 pm. There was nothing out of the ordinary at dinner time, and then I took them to the bathtub, where they were having fun. We got them out and got them ready for bed, read a Bible story, prayed for them, at at 7 pm we put them to bed.

But of course that's not the end of the story. I lay down between Tammy and Emmy, as they both wanted me to sit right next to them. But that didn't mean that they were ready to sleep. I took all the way until 8 pm before they were finally asleep. I had them both lying against my body, so it was quite a challenge to get up from between them.

I got myself something to eat and then went back to work. The last night was so tough that I'm extremely tired tonight and am  hoping to make it to bed early - without any kids.