14 months 29 days

I went to bed late, as always, and had a hard time getting up as always. I take notes during the day, so I can write my update at night, but I'm aware it's more details than anyone is interested in. It's just my nature to be so detail-oriented; I was like that in school already. It's probably more details than even the little ones will be interested in later on. Today the next photobook arrived that I made for them; they include every day's update and all the pictures, and I already have 9 thick books.

It's late, I'm tired, and I don't want to write my typical chronology of the day. I'm also frustrated, as I had emails from Air France today, and I'll have to call them tomorrow, as they have separated us, canceling and changing flights both ways, and I'll have to get it sorted out. I also heard from Paul that the neighbors had been planning an attack against us again, but one neighbor let Paul know, and now it's been thwarted. And there's a couple more things I'm frustrated about, but that's just life.

The little ones had their typical issues of not falling asleep, needing help falling asleep, not sleeping, crying,... Sonja came, and Randy didn't hear the doorbell and I was sleeping so soundly because I was so tired that I didn't hear it either, but she was so kind to come back later after we had realized what had happened.

I enjoyed not only having Tammy sleep on me, but playing with all three downstairs. They are a lot of fun right now. They're still enjoying their newfound skill of opening drawers, and I still need to research which brand of childproving is the best. They were also both stirring a pot with a cone. I had just read that they'll start playing every day activities. And even though they have several toy cellphones, Mommy's and Daddy's cellphones are still the most desirable.

Emmy was extremely tired, as he had not slept in the afternoon, but I know how to make him laugh. He's starting to be able to play catch, which Tammy is not doing yet. I just look at him and start slowly moving towards him, and he runs away laughing, and when I do catch him, he's laughing really hard. It's the cutest thing!

Sammy once again crawled to the house and pulled it on top of himself. I don't know why he enjoys doing that so much and does it all the time!

When I left them to go upstairs and get their dinner food ready, they all started crying hard, which the last picture shows. Since Daddy is there, they usually calm down pretty quickly.

At dinner time, I finally saw Tammy put a piece of bread into her mouth tonight. Emmy puts food into his mouth constantly, but goes primarily for the bananas. They all enjoy bananas, so that's a good thing for Mali. Tonight he enjoyed most picking up each strawberry, squeezing it and watching the juice run out and all over everything. He must have done it with most strawberries. He was just fascinated by it.

Randy always feeds Sammy, and it's been really difficult recently. I have to cut everything smaller for him anyway, and he eats less, and he has a hard time getting him to eat. I weigh them every Monday, and both boys had the same weight as last Monday, while Tammy lost 100 grams.

When they went to bed, I did the same thing I did last night, walking away right away. I let Tammy cry for a while, and then returned. By then the boys were sleeping, and Tammy fell asleep faster while I stayed there, sitting next to her bed.

It's 1:30, and I'm torn between staying up and working - which is much needed - and going to bed, which would help me not be so tired during the day. But then, I have no chance to get everything done during the day, so I really don't have any choice but to work at night.

I've now put all the American addresses on the Christmas cards, and will mail them to the American secretary, who will mail them out for us. It's such a cute card! If we do not have your address, and you'd like one, just let me know your address in a private message in the next few days.

Please pray for Paul and everyone in Mali. Pray for our finances, and pray for our trip to Mali and for the flight mess to be sorted out. We appreciate you!

CORRECTION: I just looked more closely at our flight changes and details and am happy to tell you that we were not separated after all. What changed is that we're leaving Mali one day later, and the good thing is that we now don't have a 9 hour layover in Paris, but only 3 hours. Thank God! He's working it all out!