Day 858. Last night I went to bed at 10:45 pm. Both Emmy and Tammy were in our bed. As Tammy had just fallen out of bed and Emmy woken up in the process, we could not move them to their bed without them noticing. However, it was tight, and then Tammy got up and went to her bed by herself. She did that one other time in the middle of the night, but she always comes back at some point. This morning they woke up at 6:30, and by 7 am we got up.
Emmy carried the cat food to the kitchen, where I gave it to the cats, then I made their breakfast. We sat down to eat - Tammy on a regular chair - and everyone ate a bit. We had leftover white bread from last night and Emmy had quite a bit of it with a little bit of cheese on top. Sammy also ate some bread and watermelon, before Daddy started feeding him his cereal. Tammy ate my cereal with me.
After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went to the living room to read a Bible story. Then I went to the back to work. They followed me there, but respected, when I closed the door. But it didn't stay closed for long, as Randy had to come in, and they came with him. They all still have diarrhea pretty bad.
Paul came a little later, we discussed some stuff, and he left to run errands. But first he went outside with the kids and Randy to go look at the sheep with them.
Once back, Emmy really wanted to talk to Sonja, but we couldn't reach her, and just after 10 am I went to the kitchen to make the soup for today. Sammy was cranky, so I put him into the baby chair in the kitchen, where he could see me. The other two both wanted pineapple and ate all the pineapple I had cut up in a box. Once I was done in the kitchen I returned to the computer to work. With the change of year, I have a lot more work than usual right now.
With noon approaching I went to the kitchen, put the soup in bowls and on the table. It needed ice to cool down so they could eat it. Thankfully they ate more food than they have been today, including some yoghurt. And they get medicine for their belly ache three times a day and love taking it as they get a small piece of candy as a reward.
I took them to the bathtub, where they had fun playing and getting clean again. Then we dressed them again and put them to bed for a nap. It was a fight again to get them to sleep, though not as bad as yesterday. It was after 1:30 before Emmy fell asleep last. Since we have to stay up late tonight, I stayed in bed with them and allowed myself to fall asleep as well. I'm not sure if it was the girl who was up first, crying for something that could have meant banana, or Sammy. The crying drew Randy's attention. He picked up Sammy and Tammy got up as well. Emmy woke up but grabbed me and lay down with me, holding me tight. I would have liked to stay with him there, but needed to get up, and since I did, he did as well. It was 3:30 pm, and Margit was already in our house. Randy gave them snacks and then left them with Margit so he could continue working on his project. Tammy was cranky having just woken up and wanted to have stickers bad. I let them pick out some cat stickers, and by now she takes 3 at a time.
It was a typical afternoon with me working on the computer and the kids coming and going, as well as taking Sammy several times to be with me, as he was cranky and Randy working on the cabinet. Fanta was washing the floors and Sammy was on the floor right by me at the time, and their interaction was just too cute. It's too bad I wasn't able to capture it on camera.
At 5 pm they started getting hungry. Amadou went to buy some white bread (baguette), and then they were asking to immediately have some. Emmy wanted cheese on it, and so did Tammy, and so I gave them little pieces of bread with cheese as well as pineapple. They ate really well tonight, including Sammy. We sat down to eat at 5:45, since they were all already eating anyway. We also cut open a new watermelon, but we haven't had much luck with them recently.
From the dining room table they went into the bathtub, where they were having lots of fun. Then we got them out and ready for bed. By 7 pm they were in bed, but Tammy and Emmy weren't quite ready to sleep yet. Tammy lay down first, but Emmy didn't want to. It was nearly 8 pm before I was able to get up from the bed. I went straight to the computer to get some stuff done before everyone was coming over for New Year's Eve, plus I still had to eat and get the living room ready.
Everything was ready by 9 pm, but no one was coming. At 9:30 everyone started coming over. Everyone got a drink, and they finished off the Christmas cookies over the course of the night. Randy sat as close to our bedroom as possible, so he could hear the kids, should they wake up. We had moved them all to their own bed so no one could fall out of bed. But I also knew that if they woke up and climbed into our bed and neither one of us was there, we'd hear them cry.
We have quite a few traditions I've started here in Mali. One is to look at all the pictures of the past year. I connected my computer with the TV, and off we went. Since I had nearly 8000 pictures in my 2021 folder and most of the kids, it was obvious that we would not be looking at them all. We looked at all the pictures taken in Mali and watched all the little video clips. All that took long enough, until 11 pm, so we only had an hour left.
Not long after we started, Emmy woke up and was crying hard. Randy went to the back to comfort him, but he was crying for me. After a few minutes I went to the back to see what I could do and then decided to take Emmy with me. It was a special evening after all. I did not expect him to stay until the very end. We unsuccessfully tried one time to put him to bed, but he wanted to be a part of the action.
After the pictures, I got the little papers out that everyone had written to themselves a year ago - their hopes and goals for the coming year. We all read them, and then anybody who wanted to could share what had come to pass. I had a few items on my list, a major fulfilled one my prodigal son Joseph coming back. Paul had none, and a few of the kids had fulfilled items, but there weren't too many. Then everyone could tell some highlights of the year; there weren't too many either. Then we talked about what hasn't come true and the disappointments of the year. One of those on my list was that we still haven't finished the next building and don't even have the permit yet.
Margit gave a little exhortation at one point. With time advancing quickly, we finally started praying. First we were thanking God for this past year. Then we switched to praying for the next year. Paul was praying, when it was getting pretty close to midnight. I had a full-screen sized clock displayed on the TV. When it was 10 seconds to midnight, we all started counting backwards. At midnight we all cheered, then started hugging each other and wishing each other a Happy New Year. A few minutes later the house was empty.
Randy had been gone for a while. Tammy woke up crying at one point, so he went to the back to comfort her and then stayed in bed with her. With Emmy on my arm I locked the door and turned all the lights off, then we went to the bedroom. I was getting ready for bed, but Emmy would not lie down until I was lying down. Once I finally did, Randy got up to take a shower. Emmy had already been in sleeping position, but with Daddy gone, he got up again. He wanted us both in bed. With all the commotion going on, Tammy was soon up on her feet as well, and then Sammy was awake again. All three were up. I had laid down at 12:30, but there was no sleeping at that point. It took a while before Randy came, and then we had three kids that needed to be put to bed. Sammy wanted milk and did a lot of crying for quite a long time. One time I got up again to give him milk. Emmy fell asleep first, right next to me, but I was surprised that Tammy just would not fall asleep. She was lying next to me with her eyes open. At one point she left to go to their bed, but then she returned again. All this went on until 2 am; that's the last time I looked at the clock. Then, FINALLY, everyone was falling asleep.
