Day 894. Last night I headed to bed at 1 am. Emmy had been sleeping in his bed all night. Some time in the early morning hours Tammy joined us in bed, and then Emmy. It was before 7 am that Emmy was up, and then Sammy and then Tammy. At 7:30 I got up, got Sammy out of bed and put him on the floor to be with his siblings. I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat. After breakfast, I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs. I turned my computer on to get Randy's test result. His CT number was 36 which means he's no longer contagious and finally free to end his isolation. Thank God! That took long enough anyway!
I gave Randy the Bible so he could read the story to them that they were already asking for and went upstairs to get ready to leave. I'm finally allowed to go to the hairdresser again, now that I've recovered, and I had a 9:30 appointment. I left the house at 8:45, with the kids crying on the bottom of the stairs because I was leaving. I took the subway and then two trams, then walked a little in the rain that had started, and got there a few minutes late. But I had to wait until nearly 10 am anyway before she had time for me. But she was pretty fast today, and so I was done at 11:20. We had done a lot of talking about all kinds of things, which is what you do at the hairdresser's. I left to get home as quickly as possible.
It was just after noon, when I returned home. I found everyone sitting at the dining room table to eat lunch. They were eating the last two baby food jars, and we were suprised how much they liked it. There was nothing left at the end! They had some pudding, and then we cleaned them up and dressed them. Randy went downstairs with Tammy, and the boys went to bed. Sammy was asleep right away, at about 12:40, and Emmy was asleep by 12:45. I got myself something to eat. At 1 pm Tammy came upstairs. I sat down with her, even though I hadn't finished eating, and while I was about to fall asleep, she was wide awake. It took her until 1:40 to fall asleep! I was finally able to leave her side and went to work. Time was way short to get everything done before having to leave at 3 pm, but I got it all done. Emmy got up first at 2:25, a few minutes later Sammy, and a few minutes later Tammy, who is always very cranky after getting up. Randy dressed Emmy, while I was finishing getting their dinner boxes ready, then it was Sammy's turn, and Tammy's last. We left on time at 3 pm and walked to the train station.
We still had 10 minutes to wait for the train and stayed closer to the wall and more inside, as it was really windy, which made it cold. They both came out of the strollers, until we approached the train to get on. On the train they sat on the seats which they always enjoy and ate their afternoon snacks. After we got off we bought some chestnuts, which they really like eating, and then we got on the subway and rode three stops. We got off and went into the mall to walk on the inside, where it's not that cold, until we got to the church. Last week I had gone there with Tammy and Emmy for the first time since our return, only to find out that there was no service. Today it was the five of us there, and the service was on.
It was great seeing everyone again. We got seats in the last row, and then the service already started. The kids enjoy the worship time, and they were raising hands at times. I really like the picture of Sammy worshiping. I was surprised, when he put his left arm straight up into the air. I didn't even know he was physically capable of doing so! My swinging him by his arms so often have loosened his shoulders. Sammy was also having fun with a teenage girl who often plays with them, and who helped him stand on the chair. He also spent quite some time with me and had fun.
After half an hour, with worship time coming to an end, we made our way to the baby room. Unfortunately the TV wasn't working, so we couldn't watch the service there. We were there by ourselves for a while, before the only other baby at this church came in with his Mommy. It was still early, but Sammy wanted to eat, so we got their food out. Randy was feeding Sammy, while Tammy and Emmy sat down at the kids' table and ate there. I also made a video of them eating. They soon got up again to play; there were more toys in the room than before our trip to Mali. Including a little laptop type toy that they enjoyed. And once the baby was there, they were playing with him and his Mommy. They also went up and down the swing, and climbed into the bed there. There was a ball with lights inside that Emmy really enjoyed.
Randy put Sammy on the floor who crawled all the way to the baby and his Mommy, and she picked him up and walked with him for a while, which was sweet. Emmy really enjoyed the cars to ride around in, and was having fun with me sitting in a chair and trying to catch him, when he'd come by.
Ten minutes before 6 pm we left the room to return to the sanctuary. Tammy and Emmy walked closer to the front, where we stood for a minute or two. The founding pastor was on the stage and saw us and ended up praying for us and for Paul and for Mali, which was really sweet. Then he continued speaking, and we ended up going back outside until the end, so they would not disturb the service. They wanted to sit on the high chairs, and I gave them some more of their food. Then the service was over, and people started coming out, and we talked to a few. We saw two out of the four people that were gonna come to Mali in January, and I handed them their gifts we had for them. It was nice talking to people. The kids were getting tired, and so we dressed them to go back home.
We walked through the mall again to get to the subway station, took the subway, and got to the train station just having missed a train. The next train was 20 minutes later, and it was one with steps. We waited and then people offered to help us get the strollers into the train, as well as a suitcase with stuff for Mali someone had left at church for us. It was the train conductor who also helped us get back off at the next stop. By 7:40 we were back home. And we found our delivered food on the floor in front of our door. I had ordered it for 8 pm, but the delivery guy had already called me 45 minutes early that he was at our house, while we were still waiting for our train. I told him to leave it at the door if he could get into the building, and that's what he had done.
Tammy was pretty cranky. I asked her if she was tired, and she said yes. She said she wanted to go to bed, and so I got her ready first and put her to bed first. It was 7:45. Five minutes later they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. It still took them a while to fall asleep, even though they were more quiet than usual. Then I got up and went downstairs, where Randy was waiting for me with the food. I started the movie I had picked out, but it wasn't that great. Once we were both done eating, we stopped the movie and each one of us left to do what we needed to do. In my case I had all of today's pictures to download and edit.
During the movie, Emmy had come to the gate by the stairs twice. The first time Randy put him back to bed, as he was asking for Daddy, and the second time I did. Once Randy was already in bed, Emmy came again, and I put him in bed with Randy, which was acceptable to him, after having had milk. At 1 am Tammy was crying, and I comforted her and put her back to bed. Now I can hear her again, and it's high time for me to go to bed, as it's approaching 1:30 am, and I'm really tired.
