28 months 20 days

Day 872. [In the airport lounge in Ethiopia] I set a timer on my phone, as it was still on Malian time, to when it was probably time to leave the lounge. Randy and Sammy were finally both asleep, while I started writing my daily update, always with an eye on Tammy and Emmy who were running around having fun with the employees. With the flight leaving at 1:30 am, I looked at the board at 12:15, and it said to go to the gate. So I packed up my computer, woke up Randy, we gathered our belongings together, and the employees said good-bye to the little ones.

Randy was still half-asleep, pulling Emmy and carrying Sammy, while Tammy was walking with me. When we got to the gate, we went close to where we'd start lining up. An airline employee came and asked us to sit down, so we walked to the side and stood by a pillar. After a few minutes, when it should have been time to board, people started getting up and going to where to line up. That same employee told all those people to go back to their seats as well. Why did he not want anyone standing? Social distancing? And then boarding started. That same guy had told us we'd have priority boarding with the kids, but there was no such thing now. They did then let us get in in front of the line and a separate aisle, where we were the first ones. They checked our passports, we gave them our boarding passes, and then we were walking down a sharp incline to the plane. Again, that was challenging pulling kids on dogs, and with my broken carry-on that I had set my purse on top on. When we got to the plane, the step into the plane was so high, that I could not get my carry-on plus purse in there. And then the flight attendant wanted to see our boarding passes. Just what else I needed. An airport worker who had taken someone in a wheelchair into the plane saw our dilemma and reacted, taking the dogs and my carry-on to carry them to our seats, and we followed him. He put everything into the overhead bin and left. How nice of him.

This time we were sitting in the back section of the plane. It's not always easy to get 5 seats next to each other. The plane had a layout of three times three seats, and we were sitting in the middle, with Randy and Sammy to our left. Right behind us was a couple with a boy who was a little older than them. Tammy and Emmy stood on their seats looking back and were having fun with him. But they were also  interested in the big TV screen that was more modern than in the last plane. I put some kids movies on with animals and drew their attention to it, when they'd get cranky. We'd been on the plane early, so it took a while for everyone to come on board. Just before we took off, it was time to go through the challenge of putting their seatbelt on again, and I succeeded. They were tired. I don't know whether we left on time, at 1:30 local time, which was 3 hours ahead of Malian time. They turned the lights off for take-off. By this time I was so very tired I really could not function any more and had no choice but to close my eyes. Tammy and Emmy also fell asleep, one to my left and the other to my right. We slept through the food service. The flight was 6 hours long and the kids slept most of that time. However, they both woke up frequently, crying and wanting to get closer to me, or Tammy just crying because she was uncomfortable. When they "wake up" like that, they're not reasonable and you just have to hold them and wait for the fit to pass. I always tried to get them into a horizontal position so they'd be more comfortable, but most of the time I had one on my arm and the other next to me. One time I succeeded in having them both flat on the chairs. I got to sit in all three chairs at different times. Randy and Sammy slept most of the time. Once when they were both sleeping, I decided to watch the second half of the movie I started on the first plane, because it was just that good. When it was over, I closed my eyes again.

Closer to landing they turned the lights up again and handed out muffins and tea and coffee. I got three muffins, and when Emmy woke up, he and Sammy shared one. We were scheduled to land just before 6 am local time, which is 5 am Malian time. Emmy was sitting next to me watching a kids movie, while Tammy was asleep on my lap. That's why I asked for a baby seatbelt so she could stay there. I put it around her, with her lying face-down on me. Nobody ever went through the aisles checking everyone's seatbelt like they do on Air France.

We landed right on time. Back in Austria! I have to say that I have mixed feelings of being back here, with the vaccine mandate coming soon, and us not able to go anywhere, so the kids can only be home and go to the playground. They had so much fun in Mali, with the other children and the animals there, that life in Mali was definitely better there for them right now.

When it was time to get up and get off the plane, the kids were so tired and cranky they wanted to be carried, which was not possible. I had put their jackets and hats on as we were going out into the cold. The whole way out Tammy and Emmy were fussing, while Sammy was perfectly happy in the baby carrier on my chest. There was again a big step to get off the plane, and then we had to show our boarding passes to get off. Tammy was screaming at the top of her lungs, and it took me a while to figure out that she wanted her hat put back on. People were walking by us, while we stood to the side, trying to calm them down and get them onto the dogs. One Austrian lady walked by, all upset about it, mumbling that this was a crazy house. Some people just don't have any understanding for little kids. I put the hat back on Tammy, and Randy pulled them out on the dogs. He was going so slowly that everyone overtook us. We were the very last ones approaching passport control. There was quite a line, so we had to wait. The kids were all doing well, Sammy wanting Daddy, but not screaming. My back was starting to hurt from his weight. Finally it was our turn. We had to take our masks off so they could see our faces. After 24 hours of wearing them my ears were really hurting from the elastic band. It only took seconds to go through passport control, and then we were at the Covid checkpoint that the Austrian army is in control of. They had handed out papers on the plane, while everyone was asleep. They asked us if we had a paper, and I said no, and so they directed us to where there were already a good number of people waiting. Then that same soldier saw the Covid papers in my hand and recognized the government printout I had from my online registration. He said that was the same thing and that we were good to go if we had done the online travel clearance. That was good news. Nobody ever checked our negative Covid test. The only time it was checked was at the airport in Bamako, and there they checked it at three different occasions.

We stopped at the bathroom right there, and then walked to the elevator that took us to the luggage carrousels. There were hardly any people at all anywhere. So unusual. We got two carts, the kids got to sit on them, and then went to our carrousel, where we expected to be our five suitcases waiting for us, since we were the last ones from our plane to get there. The belt was stopped, but no luggage. None of suitcases were there. You'd think that nearly 5 hours is sufficient to transfer suitcases from one plane to another. We walked to the claim area, where two people were ahead of us. The kids were a little cranky, but all we could do was to wait for our turn. The lady was really nice. She checked the computer and saw that the suitcases were in Ethiopia. She said they'd probably come on tomorrow's plane from there, and that they would call us and then deliver the suitcases. We were finally done and could leave.

The kids went back on the carts and we went through the doors to go outside. I had already put their coats and hats on, but when we were waiting in line, I took them back off, as they were getting hot. We found Janos, our friend from church, who was gonna drive us home with the church van. When we wanted to put their coats back on, Emmy's coat wasn't there. We must have dropped it on the way out. They wouldn't let me back inside but sent me to the information right there. The lady told me to wait and went in there to look for the coat. I had Sammy on my chest and sat down on a chair to wait. When she returned, she told me she hadn't found it. That's just hard to understand, as it was just a small area where it could have fallen off the cart. But there was nothing we could do. Thankfully it was much warmer than I had expected, quite a bit above freezing, and the car was not far.

Janos and Randy went to the car to put the car seats in, while we were waiting inside the building. Then we all went to the car and strapped then into the car seats. I was sitting between Emmy and Tammy, while Randy and Sammy were behind us. It only takes 17 minutes to drive to our house from the airport, when there is no traffic. I was pretty tired and closed my eyes. I had drifted off to sleep, when Janos asked me a question. I opened my eyes and saw that everyone else was asleep as well. After answering, I drifted off to sleep again.

At 8 am we arrived home. I took Emmy and Tammy to our apartment, and Randy brought Sammy and then they got everything - the little we had - to our apartment. Janos, our precious helper, said good-bye and left. We're now in quarantine. Next Wednesday we can take a test, and if it's negative, we're out of quarantine. That only means that we can then leave the house to go to a grocery store and the playground, as you need to be vaccinated to go anywhere else. Thank God they still let us go to church.

It was weird to be back home, and it took a while to get oriented again. There was chaos everywhere, packages that had arrived while we were gone, the car seats, and all our carry-ons, and the grocery store delivery from Wednesday. We have the best neighbors ever who were so kind to empty our mail box and take care of everything and put the food away into the fridge.

The whole rest of the day was chaotic, taking it one minute at the time, just going with the flow. As we were all tired we decided that the first order of business was to lie down to sleep. We changed their diapers, Sammy went into his own bed, and the other two got to lie down in our bed with us. We were soon all asleep. Emmy is the one who woke up first, as is usually the case. It was about 10:30. And then Sammy was awake as well. Emmy got out of bed and went to get a squeezy. Before lying down to sleep I had opened up all the Amazon boxes that contained our monthly automatic deliveries, which was mainly food for the kids. They hadn't had squeezies in a long time and immediately started drinking them. All in all they sure drank a lot of them today!

Emmy was up for good, so I got up as well and went downstairs with the boys. Randy and Tammy continued sleeping. The boys were so happy to have all their toys back, and the swing and slide and cars. Sammy was happily playing by himself the whole time, until Randy came into the room, then he wanted to be with him. Emmy was also enjoying checking everything out again. I sat down at my desk and turned the computer on to continue writing my reports. Emmy came over frequently to show me things.

It was about 11:30, when Randy and Tammy joined us downstairs. The kids had already had so many snacks that I didn't see any point in cooking. I wanted to keep working. Some time later I did warm up two jars of potato soup that they usually eat for dinner for them, and they ate much of it, before drinking another squeezy.

With 2 pm approaching, Sammy was getting pretty cranky and I suggested we put him to bed for a nap. Randy went upstairs with him. Emmy also looked tired and was cranky, and so I thought he should go to bed as well. Tammy was fine, having slept longer earlier. She wanted to do some drawing, so I gave her paper and the crayons. Emmy went upstairs, but I heard him cry for me up there, with Randy trying to get them both to sleep. Then I realized that I was very tired myself and my eyes starting to fall shut while writing. I decided I needed to lie down as well.

Tammy and I went upstairs. I didn't think it would work to lie down with both of them, and didn't think she was ready to sleep, but I was wrong. Randy stayed with Sammy, while I lay down in the middle of our bed with Tammy on one side and Emmy on the other. We all fell asleep quickly.

It was 5 pm, when I woke up, nearly 3 hours later. It was time to get up, if we still wanted them to sleep tonight. I found Randy still in the chair next to Sammy's bed, and he was holding Sammy, who had just woken up. Tammy and Emmy were still half-asleep and therefore cranky and crying. I went downstairs with them, and then the rest of boys came too. Emmy wanted to call Grandma, and I thought that would be a good time, when they are in that state of mind. We actually reached her, and it was great to see her. Emmy continued crying anyway for some time. It wasn't long and Tammy and Emmy were both lying in Daddy's arms, while I was holding Sammy, who had felt left out. He gave Grandma a big smile. We enjoyed talking to her until she had to go. We didn't reach anybody else.

The swing is always the best place to go, when they are cranky, and they all got to swing today and enjoyed it more than ever. As time went on, the crankiness left, and they were all having fun playing. Tammy did some cooking in the play kitchen, and Emmy had a lot of fun rolling around on his car. Thankfully Randy had not put the barrier back up that they used to have, and I think they are much happier that way. They were able to come to me, where I was working at the desk, any time. We just have to repair the gate at the bottom of the stairs as it had come out of the wall, to keep them from going upstairs. Today they went up a few times to get more squeezies.

At 7 pm Randy suggested we'd go feed them and put them to bed. I agreed that it was about time, and it would all take a while anyway. So we all went upstairs, into the chaos. I got some plates and got some of the delivered food out of the fridge. I had some berries, a food that does not exist in Mali and that they had not had since leaving Austria. They loved the strawberries so much that I had to cut them all up. They're all gone. Tammy didn't eat any of the bread with cream cheese. After the afternoon nap I noticed that she was a little hot, and her nose has constantly been runny. She was the first one wanting to go into the bathtub. They all had a great time playing back in the Vienna bathtub. They played a good time, before we got them out to go to bed. I had already turned the heat up in the apartment, but it was still pretty cold coming out of the hot water. Tammy was crying, and so was Emmy. We got them all dressed as quickly as possible, I prayed over them and put them into their beds. It was just after 8 pm. They had their own individual beds again, with pillows and warm comforters. I was surprised, when all three were asleep within minutes. No playing, no protests, no asking to be in our bed. Let's see how long they'll stay in their own beds tonight.

I went straight back to my computer to keep writing my report, so I'd get all that done and can move on to cleaning up and bringing order back to the apartment. And getting something to eat. Randy went to work getting all our packages opened up and emptied and took the paper trash out. Now it's nearly 10 pm, and I'm gonna get something to eat.

Thank you all for praying for us these past few days. The Lord has answered your prayers.