3 years 4 months 13 days

Day 1230. Yesterday was an intense day. Emmy had to go back to the hospital for the 3rd time, but it said 10:30 or later on the paper. We got there at 10:45, and because it was a holiday, we only had to wait 45 minutes instead of the 2 hours we waited last time. They called us into the same room we'd been in every time, and Emmy started screaming and did not want to go inside, as he was traumatized from last time, when they cut his blisters open. I had to hold him the whole time, while they took his bandages off and put new ones on one more time, as the cut-open blisters were not healed yet. However, this time even more of his fingers were outside the bandage, with mainly the palm of his hand bandaged. He never stopped screaming, even though they just changed his bandage. After we left the room, he finally quieted down and was soon his happy self again. I carried him on my shoulders, so we'd be faster, as we had not taken a stroller with us. We went straight home, where we arrived just before noon, just in time for me to warm up leftovers for lunch.

I then had a busy rest of the day, teaching from 3 to 6 pm, and from 8 to 9 pm. I was so very tired, as I did not get to take a nap at lunchtime. However, today I was even more exhausted, getting close to my limit.

I had to set an alarm this morning, as I had a 10 am lesson to teach. It was really hard getting up, as usual, and as usual the kids had already woken me up way earlier and kept me up. I finally forced myself out of bed, got the kids dressed, and then sat down for my lesson. It wasn't long after my lesson that I had to go to the kitchen to start making lunch.

At noon we sat down to eat. Tammy ate everything, and so did Sammy, while Emmy ate hardly anything. According to Randy he was the only one who'd had snacks. Only Sammy had icecream, as the other two wanted to watch videos. Today I was so exhausted that I actually lay down in bed at 1 pm , while they were still watching, but of course I had to get up after a few minutes to put them to bed. I sat down by them, hoping they'd fall asleep quickly, so I could lie down and get some much-needed sleep, but instead it was one of the worst nap times. For the longest time I couldn't get anyone to sleep, then finally Tammy fell asleep, but not the boys. I tried a few times to let Randy take my place so I could lie down and sleep, but it never worked out. I always had to return. Finally Sammy fell asleep, which meant I could take Emmy with me to my own bed. Sammy gets very upset, if Emmy gets to leave with me, so he had to be asleep at first. Emmy fussed for quite some time before he finally fell asleep, and so did I. However, just after I had fallen asleep, Tammy walked into the room and woke me up, and Emmy a few minutes later. I was still so very exhaused and in bad shape for the next couple of hours.

Sammy was up too, and it was time to get up and get ready to leave. Just after 3:30 pm we left the house to take the 3:50 pm train. And today we rode the S-train to the end, which takes half an hour. We all sat on seats together, with the kids being pretty active, while I could not keep my eyes open. After we got off, we looked for the platform to go to to take the next train, where we then had to wait 15 minutes for that train. We got on, found an available table we sat down at, and then had a 20 minute ride to St. Pölten, where we arrived just after 5 pm. We walked through downtown to get to our friend's apartment, then left the strollers on the bottom and took the elevator up to the top floor.

It was great to see my friends again. I first met the wife during the sports camp, where I got saved, which was 30 years ago, so we've known each other a long time. And now it had been over a year since our last visit, so it was high time.

The kids were eager to see the cat they had, and the whole time we were there, they were constantly looking for the cat who stayed hid the whole time, hiding from those active children. One time our friend caught the cat and took it to the kids so they could pet it. Tammy petted it first, Emmy was reluctant, Sammy petted it, then Emmy did too. But that was the only time as no food could get it to come out from under the bed.

They first gave the kids something to play with, then gave them paper and crayons to draw, and Tammy drew quite a few pictures. They were also hungry, so they had some food. Us adults, we tried to talk with each other. Sammy was also eager to look for the cat and was crawling all over the place to find it. Then we had dinner, which was a fun time of fellowship. Tammy has a cold once again, again being the first one to start off this round, and I'm the second one to catch it from her. She soon came to me saying she was tired and wanted to go home, and Emmy wanted to go home as well.  And so we decided to try to catch the 8 pm train, but first we wanted to pray for healing for my friend. We always include the kids, when we pray, and so they all laid hands on my friend, while we prayed. Then we put their coats and shoes on and left together. The elevator wasn't working, and so we had to go down the stairs from the very top floor. My friend had Emmy, Randy Sammy, and I carried Tammy on my shoulders. Then we put them into the strollers and left the building to walk back to the train station. We walked quickly so as to make our train. I though I had left my scarf (which turned out not to be true) so Sepp went back to check, while we continued on. We found our platform and still had 7 minutes before the train was to leave. A few minutes later our friends joined us, then the train arrived. We said our good-byes and got on the train. We sat down right there by the entrance, as it was not a long ride. Tammy and Emmy wanted to watch videos, while Sammy wanted to push buttons. They were all pretty tired. Once we got off in Vienna, we went to the platform our second train was leaving from, and it was already sitting there, so we got on. We sat down on seats, and the two kids continued watching, while Sammy was either with me or Randy, with us working on keeping him happy.

By 9:15 we were back home. We got them ready for bed, and half an hour later they were all in bed. I sat down by them, and Tammy went to sleep first, while the boys needed longer, Emmy taking the longest again. And so I stayed with them until about 10:30 before I walked away. It was time for me to start working on today's pictures and then write this report. Now it's after 1 am, and I don't know how I'm gonna keep going being this tired. Tomorrow we have to get up even earlier than today.