Day 832. Last night I headed to bed just after 11:30 pm. Tammy and Emmy had both had a rough evening of frequently waking up. I hadn't fallen asleep yet, when Tammy climbed into bed with us. I moved her back one more time, but she returned soon thereafter. Emmy only came in the early morning hours. Just after 6:30 they were up and asking to see the cats. By 7 I had no choice but to get up. The cat was already waiting outside our bedroom door, and they were excited to see her. I gave them some wet food, and the kids were watching them eat.
Then I went to the kitchen and made a portion of cereal for Sammy and also gave the other two some. I still haven't figured out what the best food is to give to them in the morning. They do love peanuts, I found out, and both had a little bowl of peanuts that they walked around with and all ate.
After breakfast we sat down and read a Bible story. Then we opened all three advent calendars. Then I left them, as Randy was coming with his breakfast. However, it was a tiring morning, as they constantly kept coming to me, while I was trying to work. Not only that, but they wanted to sit in my lap, which they did many times, while I tried to continue working. Margit didn't come until a lot later, and it was only then they stayed away longer. In addition, I was so extremely tired, and so I finally lay down at 10 am for a short time. It wasn't possible to take a nap with them running around anyway.
Later I got to work a little bit. I warmed up the soup for lunch, and at noon we sat down to eat.
None of them was eating much, and we ended up eating theirs. I got some yoghurt and watermelon out, and they ate a little bit of that. They had gotten pretty dirty, so it was time to go into the bathtub. Emmy enjoyed holding the shower head, and I made sure everybody got rinsed off.
We got them out and put their clothes back on. Emmy has had a terrible rash since the first day that covers most of his body now, and I put essential oils on him several times a day, even though I don't know whether it's a heat rash or allergic reaction. In any case, it looks much better as a result.
Once again we had Emmy in my spot on our bed, Tammy in Randy's, and Sammy in their bed. And once again it was hard to get them to sleep. I ended up lying down between them, and that's how they finally fell asleep. I myself got a much-needed nap in. After about an hour the challenge was how to get up without waking them up, and thankfully I succeeded.
I went back to work, while always keeping an eye on the clock. Our service is Saturdays at 3 pm, which is too early for the kids. Paul told us to come at 4:10, towards the end of the service, so us coming would not distract people from the message. Sammy woke up early, as usual, and at 3:40 I woke up Tammy and Emmy and started dressing them. I was done pretty quickly, and so we were ready too early. We still left the house, walking over to the building, where our service is taking place, really slowly, looking for chickens, and we found a mama chicken with her little ones. We continued on and saw the two sheep with their little lambs. One lamb was born the day before yesterday, and the other one last night.
People in the service turning around could already see us. We slowly approached the building and went inside, walking to the front and sitting down. I handed my good camera to Amadou to take pictures. The two drums were right where we were sitting, and Randy had Sammy stand by one and holding on to it. And Sammy also hit the drum, which sounded great. After the service I encouraged them all to hit it. Tammy did too, but Emmy refused to. I don't know what he was afraid of this time. Ironically, he kept saying the rest of the day "Emmy drums", and I had to keep saying that he had not hit them, but his siblings did.
Paul finished his preaching, while we were sitting on the bench. Emmy and Tammy were quietly sitting in my lap. After a few minutes Paul finished his message and called us up. I spoke a few minutes, greeting everyone, and then had Margit come forward to introduce her. Then I had it on my heart to pray over everyone, which I did. That was the end of the service.
We needed to take a new family picture, and so we got that done next. It's always hard to get a picture, where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling, and today I had deleted them all, so I had to start over and then picked one. After the picture, people started talking with us and wanting to take pictures with us. It was great to see André, our first university student who is about to graduate.
Paul had to do a meeting with all the church members, so we slowly made our way back to our house, looking at some chickens on the way. Our second cook's son Patrice, who likes children, ended up being with us and holding the kids' hands, as we were walking.
Back at the house, we took all their clothes off again. We had been outside for 45 minutes, and it was really hot, 38 degrees (100.4 F). When Paul came a little later, I got to take a picture with him holding all three kids, and it turned out great! We won't see him until Monday, as Sunday is his day off.
We didn't see Margit any more today either. It was 5 pm, so we had an hour left until dinner time. I returned to my computer, and Tammy and Emmy of course came to be with me. They wanted to call Grandma and Sonja, but we couldn't reach either. Then they wanted to watch Barbapapa, so I turned it on. Emmy only watched a few minutes before he preferred running and climbing around, while Tammy wanted to watch babies. She sure loves babies!
Fanta finally arrived to do some housework, though not much on a Saturday. Our Malian kids came over, and I gave them each a new sheet for their bed. They also looked at all the tennis shoes we had brought with us, as they always want those bad. As it was nearly 6 pm, most of them left before choosing any; it was dinner time for our kids.
I still had to make their food, and so we ended up eating later than 6. Once again they would not eat their (Austrian) bread with cream cheese, and they ate the last of the sausage. They ate a little bit of watermelon and some yoghurt. Not very much. Then it was time for the bathtub, where they had lots of fun. Again we sang all the action songs we know, even though Emmy didn't participate as much as usual. We enjoyed all the foam that the whirlpool had made before Sammy came, who does not like the noise of it.
Then it was time to get them out of the water and get them ready for bed. By 7 pm they were in bed, or rather one in their bed, and the other two in our bed. And it was once again a challenge to get them to sleep, and it took an hour. I lay between them again for a while, but did not in the end. It's such a challenge! Later I moved them to their bed. One time Tammy woke up and surprised me, when she lay back down. Later she did climb into our bed and continued sleeping there. Emmy also woke up, and I was able to keep him in his bed. One time I saw him patting his sister's back. And then he got up and climbed into our bed without a word. Once he was there, he was calling for me, and it took a while before he fell back asleep, and later they both got moved back to their bed.
I had some food and then started working. We have so many pictures today that it took me a long time to go through them, choose and edit them. Good thing I had a nap today or I could not have done it.
