HEALING 2 THE NATIONS INTERNATIONAL
Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your inheritance. (Ps 2:8)
Day 1140. Normally Sunday is the day we can sleep in, but not today. The alarm at 8 am was a stark reminder that we needed to get up, instead of letting them watch something, while we get some more shut-eye. After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, and then the doorbell already rang 10 minutes early. It was the government doctor who came to assess Sammy.
I was holding Sammy who was very suspicious. We all went downstairs together, where we sat down at the couch. The doctor started asking questions, while I was holding Sammy, who was still eyeing her with trepidation and was whiny. Randy sat down on the ground, where the other two kids were playing with the Tiptoi sticks and books. She wanted to see Sammy crawl, and so I put him on the floor and asked him to go to Daddy, and he crawled to him. Randy then put him on his knees, his sitting position, and gave him a Tiptoi stick which was a good distraction. But then she wanted to listen to his lungs, and so I had to get him back and open his body up, which he didn't like at all. He liked even less, when she put the stethoscope against his chest and back. Then she looked at his legs. That was it. She was done and left.
It was election day in Austria, electing our president, and I had told the kids that they could come along, when I go vote. And so we put our shoes on right away and left the house at 9:40 to walk to the school, where I was supposed to vote. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day. We walked just over one subway stop and reached the school, where lots of people were walking in and out. I found my room, showed my ID, and was given my voting card. Then I went into one of the booths, together with Tammy and Emmy, where I took their pictures. Then I voted, put the paper into the envelope, and threw it into the box. That was it. We left the school again.
The kids were asking to go to the playground, and as we were already half-way there, we decided to go there. The walk seemed a lot longer to got there than I had expected. There were not a lot of children there, and ours ran to go play. For half an hour there were having lots of fun. I had Sammy for most of the time, who loved sitting on the giraffe on the spring and wanted me to sit with him on it. I sat down and made it jump up and down, which made him laugh. I also helped him up the ladder to the slide, and then he crawled to the start of the slide by himself and let himself go down the incline, with me catching him on the bottom.
Tammy went for the highest slide right away and went up and down a few times. As for Emmy, he seems scared of heights and did not make it up there.
At 10:40 we left to walk back home. We walked by a place where they have horses, and someone had a horse on the leash, making it go in circles. We stopped and watched for a little bit. Especially Sammy really loves horses.
It was nearly 11 am, when we got back home. The kids went downstairs, while I lay down by my computer for a few minutes, and actually fell asleep instead of working. When I woke up, there was not much time left to cook some lunch for everyone, but I did it. We sat down to eat, then had ice-cream, and then the kids started watching videos, earlier than usual. Sammy went into his bed and kept calling for me. Randy went downstairs to lie down for a little bit. At 1:15 I put the other two to bed as well and sat down by them. After about half an hour I was able to walk away.
I never got to take a nap. Emmy walked into the room at around 2:45 pm, and it wasn't long before the other two were up. Randy ended up going downstairs with them, while I started making their dinner-to-go. At 4 pm they came upstairs, we put their coats and shoes on, and left 10 minutes later. We rushed to make the 4:20 train, and did. After we got off the train, we bought some chestnuts, then walked to our tram stop. We got on the tram, and after we got off we still had to walk up the hill to church, where we arrived before the service started.
We walked to the front, where they got some streamers. One time all three used them, but I didn't get to take a picture. Emmy was very interested in what was going on on the stage and walked up to the top step to watch from as close up as possible. Worship time had barely started, when they were already asking to go upstairs. We stayed until a few minutes after 5:30 though. I had Sammy and was dancing with him, which he enjoyed. He was moving his head with the beat, which he enjoys doing.
We were the first ones in the toddler room upstairs. Of course Sammy wanted to play in the play kitchen, and so I took him there. Tammy had a dirty diaper, and I changed her right there on the floor. I kept Sammy on his feet there for about 45 minutes, while other parents and children arrived. Then I took him to the table, gave him some food, and let him sit on the floor by the boxes that he enjoys playing with. It was getting later and later with no sign of the program starting. Just before 6:30 I sat down in the designated area with Sammy, and a few minutes later the program started. I was having a hard time getting Emmy and Tammy to join and leave behind their book/cars. In fact, it wasn't working at all at first, especially with Tammy. We did the starting song, then the individual greeting song, then the Bible song, before today's Mom started the teaching. It was Psalm 23 once again, for the third time in the last 2-3 months. After the teaching she gave the kids instruments, which they enjoyed, then it was drawing time. Tammy proudly showed me her drawing, and I took a picture. I sat down at the table with Sammy so he could eat some more food, then he sat on the floor by the box again.
It was nearly 7 pm, when the clean up song started playing. A few minutes later we put their shoes on and left. Sammy kept saying, then shouting, "Anna" again, but then the big disappointment came, when Anna wasn't there. We put their coats back on and left to go home.
We walked to the tram stop, where they were eating, while watching Peppa Pig, which they continued doing on the tram. When we got off, we had just missed one tram. We stayed inside the hall with them eating and watching. Sammy was pretty cranky, and I tried to cheer him up. Then we went up to the platform and took the 8:01 pm train to go home, where we arrived about 15 minutes later.
We immediately started getting them ready for bed, put them to bed, and then I sat down by them. They all seemed pretty awake. Tammy and Sammy were asleep first, but Emmy was still protesting, when I tried to walk away. He finally fell asleep as well, and I went into the kitchen to make my dinner. I ate and then went to work going through today's pictures. Now it's 1 am, and I still have to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.