27 months 3 days

Day 826. Last night I went to bed just after 11:30 pm. Tammy came rather early and stayed for a while, then Randy put her back to bed, and she came again later. Emmy came in the early morning hours and was soon up and leaving our bed with his sister to explore the apartment. It wasn't even 7 am yet, when I got up to make their breakfast.

After breakfast we went downstairs, where I got their Bibles out and we read a few stories. Once Randy came, I left them to go upstairs and work. I had worked for a while, when I decided it was time to check us in for our flight to Mali. When I did so, it asked for our health documents, and suddenly it said that you had to be either vaccinated or recovered or have a good reason to fly. You could already upload the documents in advance to find out if you could fly, or present them at the airport. I wrestled with it all day and at 4:30 I uploaded the documents, including why we absolutely needed to go to Mali. They said we'd be informed within 3 hours whether we could fly or not, but now it's 9 pm and we have not been notified one way or the other yet.

I finally went to the kitchen to get lunch ready and called everyone upstairs to eat at noon. Once again they were more interested in eating with adult silverware and off adults plates. Then they went into the bathtub to eat their puddings and play. After we got them out, the boys went to bed, and Randy went downstairs with Tammy. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep, and just after 1 pm Randy came upstairs with Tammy, who also fell asleep quickly. Randy also took advantage of the time and slept in the chair by their beds. I was very tired myself and lay down and closed my eyes for a few minutes.

Sammy's crying is what woke me up, and he was up early, at 1:50. Since Randy wasn't reacting, I picked up Sammy and took him with me. We played for a while, and then I went downstairs with him, where I needed to do some more packing. I put him on the floor and let him play, while I was working. After a while I was thankful, when Randy came to take care of him.

Emmy slept longer than usual and woke up, when I was upstairs. I had to go up and down constantly to pack. I took him downstairs to join his brother. At 3 pm I stopped the ocean waves, and the girl was up within minutes. I took her downstairs as well, together with their snacks.

As is usually the case, they wouldn't let me leave even though I had work to do. Randy was feeding Sammy, but the other two were not ready to eat. Tammy wanted to watch Barbapapa, but Randy wasn't happy about that as it distracted Sammy. I tried to leave again, but Tammy was crying so hard and wouldn't stop, so that I returned. We then looked at a photo book with pictures from Mali, which they enjoy doing, and got the instruments out for them to play. Emmy has amazing rhythm, when he plays the drums! But the guitar is definitely his favorite instrument, and he's really gonna miss it in Mali.

At 5:15 or so we started tidying up, me doing most of it, and then we went upstairs. The kids pulled two chairs into the kitchen to stand on them, and I put their plates in front of them. I started making their bread with cream cheese and salami and put it onto their plates in front of them. Once most was done, they sat down at the dining room table to eat. Tammy ate his soup, but Emmy didn't even touch it. He had eaten so much in the kitchen that he didn't want any more food at that time. I put all their food onto one plate that I took to the bathtub, and put them into the water. Sammy joined them a little later. They ate some more, though by far not everything, while Sammy ate everything. Then we got them out and put them to bed.

Sammy was the first one in bed by 6:45. Once they were all in bed, I sat down by their beds, but there was no sleeping. They were pretty hyper, probably because of our upcoming trip. I told them that we'd get up in the middle of the night to go to the airport, but I also let them know that there was a possibility that they would not let us on the plane.

At about 7:30 the doorbell rang, and they were immediately up and running to the door. It was Margit who they had also talked about every day the last few weeks. They greeted her with such warmth, as if they knew her well, even though they had only met her once for a few hours. It was hard to get them back to bed, and even then they were still hyper. Randy took my place, and after a while I returned to the chair and Randy went to the kitchen to cook omelets for us (using up our food). I FINALLY got them to calm down and go to sleep. It was already some time after 8 pm.

Margit had settled in in our guest room downstairs that we had prepared for her and I checked on her, then went back upstairs to eat and work. The dishwasher is running, and I still have to finish putting all the food that would spoil together so that our neighbors can take it. Randy is taking all the suitcases upstairs right now, and I still have to finish up with the last suitcase. Now it's 9:30, so we should be able to get a little sleep before leaving at 3:30. I just wished they'd let us know in advance, whether we can fly or not.