HEALING 2 THE NATIONS INTERNATIONAL
Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your inheritance. (Ps 2:8)
My bedtime is getting later and later again, last night it was 3:30, so it's really hard to get up five hours later to make their food and feed them. Then we put them to bed for their morning nap. Emmy was crying so hard that I lay down with him, but he wasn't sleeping, so he went back into his bed, which he did not appreciate at all. I then picked up Tammy who slept on me until 11, though it always takes her a while to fall asleep. Once she was awake, I took her downstairs to the boys.
At 12:30 I got up to feed them their lunch meal, then we took them back downstairs, while I got our lunch ready, took Randy's plate to him downstairs, and then got their clothes and food for church ready, while eating in between. Time was flying, and they were getting more tired. At 2:15 we put them all to bed for their afternoon nap. I was hoping they'd sleep in their beds, so I could work. Emmy actually was tired enough that he fell asleep after stroking his head for a while. As for Tammy, I finally gave up and lay down with her. However, she was not ready to sleep. Instead she was walking around the bedroom and having fun, until I tried again to get her to sleep, and by 3 pm she was finally falling asleep on me. At that same time, Sammy was waking up and crying. His crying woke up Emmy right next to him, and so Randy got them out and fed them their afternoon meal, which I could hear in the bedroom. Emmy seemed pretty cranky. Usually Daddy rocks him back to sleep when he wakes up, but there was no time for that today. At 3:30, after only half an hour, Tammy woke up by herself, and I fed her her afternoon meal, then dressed her for church. We all got into high gear, dressing them, ourselves, and packing everything, then putting their coats on, putting them into the strollers, and finally leaving. We did not make the 4:20 train; instead we had to take two subways, which takes longer, but we were only late by a few minutes.
There were more people than usual at church, probably because of the guest speaker. Also, it might have been the last service before the complete lockdown that starts on Tuesday, but it's not decided yet. We took them out of the strollers, and Tammy and Emmy started walking around making friends again, while Daddy held Sammy for most of the time, though he was with me for a while as well. I followed Tammy and Emmy for most of the time, to keep them from trouble, and pick them up when they wanted me too. I tell you, they're getting heavy, especially when I have them both in my arms!
There were lots of children, and one little girl took Tammy by her hand and walked around with her, though she walked a little to fast for Tammy, so Tammy fell a few times, and her Daddy tried to explain that to her. They also had a bag of books that Tammy and Emmy were allowed to get into and look at.
Some people picked them up and held them for a while when they came to them. After a while, we started feeding them. Sammy did not want the food, he preferred his milk, but I was feeding the other two, which is hard work, when you have to keep following two babies to put food into their mouths. They ate most of it.
Then Tammy discovered the staircase going upstairs to the rooms there, and from then on there was no keeping her from going up there. So I finally picked them both up, and we went upstairs to the toddler room. I had never been upstairs and was curious to see it myself. They were just wrapping up in there, but they still got to play a little bit, riding on these cars they move with their legs, and Emmy went down the slide a few times. Then we went back downstairs.
I was getting pretty tired. This is a high intensity job, going after them for two hours, picking them up, setting them down, feeding them, etc. The service was over after just two hours, and we only spoke briefly with a few people, as it was after 7 pm and the curfew started at 8 pm. We put their coats back on and put them into their strollers. They hadn't even been cranky from being tired tonight! Out we went into the cold, and went home the same way we came. The subways were already pretty empty, and we arrived home at 9 minutes after 8 pm, not quite making it before the curfew.
Then we went through the process of getting them out, changing them and putting them to bed. As expected, it didn't take too long before they fell asleep. In any case, it was much later than usual, so we ate later, and I got started on office work later, but I cannot go to bed later.