15 months 23 days

Another tiring day for me. These past two days the spiritual warfare has become more tangible and continued today. This is a country covered in darkness, with lots of forces of evil in action, and we have to have intercessors to cover us in prayer. As the one God has put on top of this ministry, I'm like the tip of an arrow, getting hit with everything, and I've never had enough people praying for us and this ministry. Those who have not known me that long, having been in Mali for 17 years, don't even know all I have lived through during those years, that includes even Randy. I believe the Lord chose and prepared me for this work, and I also believe many would have left a long time ago. And the same is true for Paul, who's been with me for 15 of those years. People sometimes say to me, how hard it must be to have three babies at once. But I can tell you that that is child's play compared to what I've lived through in Mali. So please, pray for me and us and tell others about us so they can pray as well.

Last night I didn't make it to bed until 3:30, and then babies woke up before I ever fell asleep, so it was after 4 am before I finally got to sleep, and I could tell all day, not getting as much nap time in either. Tammy would never fall asleep in the afternoon, but she did sleep on and with me for 90 minutes in the morning.

This is the fourth day they're having diarrhea, but thank God, the medication and stuff we've been doing is staring to work, and it's much better now. It could be over by tomorrow. They all are pretty red because of it, and so today we put paper diapers on them instead of the cloth diapers. The cloth diapers include a lot of layers, and in this heat, it really makes them more sore. We usually have around 31 C (88 F) in our house, sometimes more, at night less for a short time. This is the COLD season in Mali, and it's gonna continue to get colder until we leave, January being the coolest month of the year.

Today we've been giving them diarrhea medicine in syrop form that we had brought with us in January (thank God we did!). We've been putting it into their food every meal, but Emmy is a very picky eater, who refuses to eat what he doesn't know (unless it's a snack), and he would not eat anything with the medicine in it, even banana, his favorite food. It does have a pretty strong smell. In the end it worked better to pull it up in a syringe and shoot it straight into his mouth. That way he swallowed it all. It's still challenging to come up with what to cook for them, so it's not always the same thing, as availability is limited here. Also, we puree it every time now, so it's not so liquid and easier to feed, and Sammy can't eat big pieces of food yet anyway. Every meal incudes bananas, as they like them so much, plus they constipate. They're already underweight as they are, so we need to get as many calories into them as possible. I'm glad they drink water frequently in the course of the day now. Sammy, though, still finds it hard to drink out of the sippy cup, and often it just runs out of his mouth.

This morning our Malian kids didn't come over for some reason, but they came in the afternoon. Today even more of Rosalie's (one of our cooks) six kids came over. Hawa (11), Nathanael (9) and Cathérine (5). The older ones stayed away. Of course Esther (3) was with us as well, though not as much either. And Sanaba. The Malian kids are enjoying the toys so much, I think they come over to play with them, rather than the babies. There were some cute moments today, though, and cute pictures.

We made cubes out of the letter mat the other day, and today the girls were showing off how many they can put on their head without falling. And Hawa put one on Tammy's head as well. Girls carry food, water and whatever else on their heads after all, even without holding it! Today it was definitely girls' day, and Tammy greatly enjoyed it.

Sammy today sat (knelt) by himself on one of these cubes, as well as the little Malian stool.

Emmy was very cranky again in the afternoon. He's really good at throwing fits and is very outspoken. I ended up taking him with me, and letting him explore the house a little. I don't think he likes to be confined in the small play area all the time. He loves to discover new places and wants to get out. Both him and Tammy talk about the cat all day long. Even when they wake up at night, they say "kake" (Emmy) or "kawkaw" (Tammy) (Katze is German for cat). Emmy is still scared of them, though, but it's so much fun to approach the cat with him and watch his reaction. I hope I get a video some time. He tries to keep his distance, and laughs when her fur touches his skin.

Emmy was pretty much running back and forth between kitchen and bathroom. He's very social and went straight to Fanta who was doing the dishes, held on to her clothes and tried to get her attention. Then he walked back to the bathroom where he had discovered cabinets to explore. Our bathroom and kitchen cabinets came from the US (a long miracle story), but they're all being eaten up by termites and falling apart. I'm not sure how much longer we can use any of it. This cabinet he opened has hardly anything in it, so not much to play with, and I wouldn't let him anyway, as everything is covered in Malian dirt.

Emmy being so cranky, I went into the bathtub with all three again, and he was finally being more his old self, enjoying the water. Bed time was tough again, having to hold Emmy down so he would not run around, laughing and keeping his siblings from sleeping. He also loves throwing stuff. Pacifiers are his currency, and so he gathers as many as possible, but he also enjoys throwing them, and throwing them out of bed, and so we always have to pick up pacifiers from under everywhere, and are always short of clean pacifiers. We do sterilize them every day, together with the milk bottles. Tonight again, we gave them all milk to help them fall asleep, and added probiotics to replenish them.

Over in our dining hall, the street kids coming in to spend the night always get a meal, and hear a Bible story, before they lie down to sleep after a prayer. I brought two chocolate advent calendars with me from Austria, so every day until Christmas, Amadou (who leads this time when Paul is not here) draws two names of which street kid gets to open it and have the chocolate. They really enjoy it!

By the way, our Kids Christmas Party will be on the 28th of December. Last year we had 600 children show up. Right now we are not allowed to have more than 50 people gather at once, so that would mean 12 groups of 50 to preach the gospel to! That's gonna take a while, and Paul might be hoarse at the end of the day. Today he bought 400 pairs of shoes to hand out to them, and then there are also toys and clothes, so they get to choose what they want. I also brought 500 plastic bowls with me, so they can take their meal with them.

How do you like my new format of just telling you these stories instead of giving you a chronological review of the day? I like both, but think this is more enjoyable for you. In the end, all these updates and pictures go into books to give to the triplets when they're grown up, so even if nobody reads this, which some of you do, that's fine with me.

Today it's not even 1 am, but I'm pretty tired. I have some more work to do, but sure hope it won't be as late as yesterday when I go to bed.