15 months 22 days

Today there are so many pictures that it's already after 2 am. It's so much fun to have so many Malian kids over, and I don't know how they're gonna go back to being only the three of them when we're back in Austria.

Please keep declaring health over our three little ones who still have diarrhea, though the last diaper I changed (exceptionally) at 10 pm was okay. That was Emmy's, and he was not himself this afternoon. He was more tired than usual, and therefore cranky. We even fed them half an hour earlier, and therefore put them to bed earlier.

We had some of our Malian kids over for much of the day, which is so much fun - for us and them. It's actually really funny to see 12 and 13-year-olds go through the house and even tunnel and enjoy it so much. That's because they don't have anything here.

Today we had Jonathan (12) over again, who was already born into our family here, with his Mom working for us and living with us. He is the one our babies have already changed, when he would not even hold his newborn brother before. Now he plays with all three, even a GIRL! I barely recognize this boy any more!

His older sister Sarata (15) spent time with us as well today. She came to live with us when she was 6 months old and has always had a special place in my heart (together with Bakary). She was always "my girl", and to this day I sometimes accidentally say Sarata to Tammy (I guess both names have 3 A's). I love her as if she was my daughter. It was so great seeing her hold Sammy today who was perfectly happy with her.

In fact, Sammy had a great day, the best yet! Since arriving in Mali, he had been even more attached to us, crying every time we'd walk away from him and whenever somebody else would hold him. This was the first day others could hold him without crying, including Barbara, and it was great to see. That doesn't mean he still cries a lot when we're not there, and so he gets carried around by Randy or me much of the time. Not only did Barbara and Sarata hold him today, but Sanaba as well. And both Patrice and Nathanael also held him. For the boys, that's culturally even more amazing, and now I see for the first time how the Lord can use Sammy's physical challenges in Mali as well. In Mali, handicapped children get either thrown away or hidden away, and their only future is to become beggars. Fanta's oldest son Hama is handicapped and came to live with us when he was 4. He couldn't even smile back then as he had been so mistreated. I tried to put him in a kindergarten, or find any other facilities to help him, but it was all a disaster. To see Malian kids hold Sammy was absolutely amazing to me, and if I had time, I would share much more with you to help you understand.

Esther (3) is Sarata's little sister. Her Mom told me that she won't stop talking, and now that she's getting more and more comfortable with us, that's becoming pretty obvious. She probably loves the toys the most, not having (hardly) any herself, and spends more time than anyone else over.

Sanaba is the kid who joined our family last. Her Dad died in an accident, and her two sisters died because her mother had no money to take them to a doctor. That's why she moved in with us, as her Mom could not provide for her. She comes to our service every week, though, as she has given her life to the Lord. I haven't had much time with Sanaba yet, but she's a sweet girl and has been blooming living with us.

Patrice and Nathanael are brothers, two of the six kids of one of our two cooks, Rosalie. They live just around the corner from us. I've known them both since they were born, but we've never had as much interaction as we do now.

Emmy is our social and extrovert one and the center of the party. He plays with everyone and wants to be held by everyone, and it's so much fun to watch. Everbody loves him, as he smiles at everybody. Today, he tried to put his clothes on by himself which was really funny to watch. It's also hilarious to see his interaction with the cat. He's still pretty suspicious of it, but laughs when the cat touches him or he the cat. I'd love to get a video of that some time!

Tammy turns out to be more quiet than her brother in a crowd of kids, but she seems to be thinking more deeply about things and does enjoy interacting with the others. She doesn't smile and laugh quite as much, but always seems deep into thought, working on figuring things out. By the way, both her and her brother have a spotless record in bringing the balls of the color I asked for! This afternoon, I could not get Tammy to sleep, but she made it to bed time pretty well.

Tonight I finally got Emmy to go into the bathtub and be okay for much of the time. The only way it worked was to go in it together with him, and I'm glad I did, though it's a smaller tub than in Austria and it was a little crowded with an adult and three kids.

Even Emmy was the one the most tired tonight, we still had to hold him down to make him stop running around in bed and keeping the others from sleeping. He has the lightest sleep and was the one waking the others up at 10 pm. I could only get them to sleep again by giving them milk. We added some probiotics tonight to replenish them, and I found some medicine for babies we had brought with us in January, so we can give that to them tomorrow.

Besides all that, I tried to get work done in the office, and with Paul, which is not easy. I've also been dealing with a typical challenge here in terms of people not telling the truth, and that's always hard when it's a team member who should know better.

Now it's nearly 3 am, and while I know I forgot things to write, and could say so much more, I'd better go to bed, and leave the rest of the office work for tomorrow again. There's just so much to do!