28 months 16 days

Day 868. After successfully moving Tammy and Emmy to their bed, I lay down at 10:45 pm. It wasn't long before Emmy came back, and a while later Tammy. This morning they woke up around 6:30, and a few minutes later we were all up. Paul had to buy diapers one last time, and they are pant diapers that are a little too big for them. Emmy's diaper had slipped down all the way and was held in by his pj. He was desperate to get rid of the dirty diaper, so I cleaned him up and changed him, as Randy needs a little more time to get out of bed. Then I started making their breakfast, and we sat down to eat omelet, bread with butter, salami, watermelon and oatmeal with milk. After eating I took them to the bathroom to clean them up and dress them. I told them a doctor was coming to do a test, and then the doorbell rang already. It was him. Emmy kept calling him "Kinderarzt" (pediatrician). He put a stick down Randy's throat first (PCR test), then it was my turn. I picked up Emmy, and so he was next. Emmy was crying in advance. The doctor did not go in deep or for long. Then it was Sammy's turn, and it was Amadou holding him, and Tammy came last, with me holding her. Emmy was the only one who had cried. We  paid him, and he left. Tomorrow we'll get the results on WhatsApp, and tomorrow night we're leaving Mali.

We then sat down to read a Bible story, and Emmy joined us for once. Then I went to the back to start working. Randy wants to already get started packing, but we don't have that much to pack,and you really can't pack 36 hours in advance. Margit came early, before 9:30, and they all went outside to see the animals. When she came back in, she found an email that her flight tonight was canceled. Paul returned a few minutes later with our passports and visas - praise God. And he also had Margit's PCR test result. I tried to find out more about Margit's flights, and then we called Air France. It was a long wait time, and so I started cooking. The meat smelled a little, and I did not want to take the risk, so I got some other meat out of the freezer. Then someone finally took Margit's call, and I helped her out. She was told that the earliest flight with an available seat out of Mali was on the 18th. That's over a week away!  He said that they'd refund her money, if she booked a flight on another airline before then. In the end he said she could just go to the airport and see if they could get her on the next full flight, and Margit made up her mind to do that and nothing else. End of story. She quickly said her good-byes as it was lunch time.

All that stuff going on kept me from cooking, and so it was 12:15, before we sat down to eat. They had already had some bananas, they had cried and begged and made it very difficult to deal with Air France on the phone and Paul on the other phone and then Paul in the house, and having a hard time hearing anything that was said. They all had some food and some yogurt, and then I took them to the bathtub to clean them up. We dressed them and put them to bed; it was nearly 1 pm. By 1:15 pm Emmy was asleep, Tammy needed another 20 minutes. Then I got up to go back to work.

At 2:15 Emmy already rose up and insisted on going to see Daddy, so I took him to him, but he never fell asleep again. Sammy woke up at 2:40, and I took him to the boys in the living room. At 3 pm Margit texted me that the airport is closed and that they had not put her up in a hotel, so she needed to picked up. A few minutes later Tammy woke up, when Randy came in and I told him. Everyone was pretty cranky then, two out of three not having slept enough.

I had felt miserable yesterday morning, but was fine after, but this afternoon I was feeling pretty miserable again. My whole body was hurting, and I was a little cold. I even ended up lying down on our bed for a few minutes, but obviously it wasn't long before they came to me and it was over.

Paul and Margit arrived just before 4:30. Emmy was so happy to see her, but Margit was ready to go to her room and get changed and get her bed ready again, and so he cried really hard, when she left after only  a few minutes. He cried a lot until dinner time, being so tired. I held and carrie him a lot, and lay down back in bed, playing with him there. I then carried him to the kitchen, when I started cooking at 5:30, and he enjoyed sitting on the edge of the counter. By the way, when he says "Tammy, Emmy, Sammy", he always has his own name in there twice and drops one of  his sibling's names.

Paul came back and told me that he had talked to the director of the airport who explained to him that direct flights to Europe were not affected and that there were no worries for our flight to Paris tomorrow night. That was comforting. But in the next few hours everything went downhill.

At 5:45 we sat down to eat. Tammy didn't touch the bread or omelet but ate quite a bit of watermelon, her favorite food, and a little bit of yogurt. Then we took them all to the bathtub to have fun; it was me who was feeling so miserable that I was having a really tough time to keep doing what I was supposed to. Sammy came out first, then the other two, and we got them ready for bed. Just before 7 pm they were all ready, and Tammy was climbing up our bed, when she vomited. So we changed her clothes and our sheet. That was the first of eight times between 7 and 9 pm. We ran out of sheets and pajamas. She's now been asleep the longest time ever, and I hope she's done vomiting. Just after writing this, she vomited for the 9th time, in her sleep, and I was able to catch it all

At some point I decided to call our missionary doctor who had been ignoring my messages the last few days and found out that she was really sick and unable to help us. Now we just have to trust the Lord to take care of all of us, and to take us all to Austria.

At 8 pm I received an email from Air France that our flight tomorrow was canceled. They have rebooked us 24 hours later, on Wednesday night, but it gets crazy after our arrival in Paris, as we have to fly to Amsterdam first, and then to Vienna, and the layover times in both cities are way too short with three toddlers.

I'm worn out and exhausted and feeling terrible and am heading to bed early. I have not touched any food tonight.