28 months 9 days

Day 861. Last night I went to bed at 11:30 pm. I did not succeed in moving Emmy to his own bed, but at least Tammy continued sleeping in their bed. However, somehow the girl always knows, when I go to bed. As soon as I lay down, she got up and climbed into our bed. Randy had to turn around so we'd all have enough room, and even then it was still tight. And the girl would just toss and turn and cry, keeping me awake, and bothering her brother as well. It took over an hour before I had a chance to fall asleep, but the whole night is difficult, when they're both in bed with us. At least it was close to 7 am, when Tammy was the first one up this morning, and her brothers woke up right after that. I opened the door and let the hungry cats in, and then we went to the kitchen, where we fed them, before I started making their breakfast.

Paul came by, we discussed a few things, and I needed to turn my computer on to give him, what he needed. The kids were demanding food from me at the same time. Once he had left, I returned to getting breakfast ready. With their diapers changed, we all sat down to eat. 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 turn the computer on and work. I had 500 pictures from the village distribution yesterday to work on.

And I was thankful that I was able to close my door, and they happily played in the living room, without ever needing me. When Margit came, they went outside to see the sheep. More quiet time for me. And so it wasn't until some time after 10:30 before one of them came running to see me.

Paul returned, and we had some more things to discuss, especially with the team from Vienna coming next week. By the time he left it was time for me to go to the kitchen and make lunch. We were able to sit down to eat before noon. Tammy hardly touched her food, Emmy ate more, and Sammy is our best eater right now. The boys had some yoghurt, and then they all had their medicine and candy as a reward. Then we took them to the bathtub to clean them up, dressed them, and then it was bedtime. It was about 12:30. Sammy fell asleep quickly, Tammy was asleep by 12:50, and Emmy 5 minutes later, so they all fell asleep faster than usual.

At 2:30 Paul called me with an urgent matter. I had just laid down next to Emmy who help him keep sleeping and couldn't answer it, but Sammy woke up from the noise. I finally took him to Randy and called Paul back, then lay back down with Emmy, but there had been too much commotion, and so he also went to the living room. Thankfully Tammy continued sleeping.

By 3 pm she was up as well, and then a very stressful afternoon started with me trying to take care of a new "crisis" situation, just some warfare having to do with the team coming next week. I had been making good progress working on a new newsletter, but all that had to be put on hold. In the midst of running back and forth Sammy got thrown into my arms because he was so cranky, and Daddy was unavailable. But he wanted Daddy, not me. At one point I took a break, joining everyone in the living room and throwing them all in the air, one after another, getting rid of all crankiness.

At 5 pm Amadou brought us the fresh bread, and they wanted to eat right away. Tammy sat on my lap, while I was working, watching videos of babies, and that way I got her distracted from wanting food. At 5:30 I went to the kitchen to start getting dinner ready, and we already sat down to eat at 5:45. They had already eaten quite a bit of salami coming to me in the kitchen, and now there was bread with cheese, pineapple and watermelon, as well as yoghurt. Tammy threw her fit again to get out of the chair and onto my lap, but my nerves were already at their limit at that point, from the stressful afternoon. While I let her cry for a while, I did in the end get her out and let her sit on me.

After dinner I took them to the bathtub, where they were having fun. Sammy was upset, when I pulled him away and out of the water. We got them all ready for bed, but I was still being pulled away to try to deal with this time-sensitive issue. Randy was trying to keep the kids calm and in bed, while I was scanning and writing and printing. I finally was able to lie down with them, and they fell asleep rather quickly by then, first Tammy, then Emmy. Just after 8 pm I was able to get up and return to work. I got a few more things done, before I got up to get some food, eat, and then go back to work. Tonight I've been working longer than usual and still feel like I could keep going.