16 months 10 days

It was a good last day in Mali. Tonight is our last night here, as we're leaving tomorrow night, the flight being at midnight. We land in Paris 5 hours later (so little sleep), have a 3-hour layover, and then board a plane to Vienna, which is another 90 minute flight. On both flights Barbara is sitting way too far from us, which is not gonna work, so pray for favor so we'll be sitting together again.

Last night Tammy was pretty restless, and then Randy discovered that some of her molar teeth have broken through, so that's probably way. Because of it, Randy refused to get up at 6:30 to give them their antibiotics, so they had them later, when he was ready to get up.

I was pretty tired today, first because of the restless night, then giving them the antibiotic, and the changing table being right next to our bed, I wake up when any of them do not like being changed. Sammy lies down to sleep after the 9 am breakfast, and an hour later it's Emmy's and Tammy's turn. As always, she struggled, fighting sleep, until she finally gave in and slept. She woke up first and I took her to the others, and then was right there when Emmy woke up.

All day long, they constantly talk about the cats "kake", and the sheep "bah". They look out the front there and the windows to look at them, and get excited when they see the cats, and look for them when they don't. What are they gonna do in Austria, where there are no sheep or cats? I think a visit to the zoo would be fun, but it's closed because of Corona.

Today our Malian kids came over again, which was fun. They are gonna miss them too, both ways. Whenever someone comes through the door, it's Emmy who immediately stretches out his arms to be picked up by whoever it is. And then the girl comes as well. It's a great distraction when they are cranky, ending that immediately.

Today Amaga was over, and it was really cute how Tammy interacted with him. He's exactly a year younger than them, while Esther, his sister, is two years older than the triplets. Today Esther got a new water bottle, and she was very unhappy when Emmy was playing with it. Cathérine (5) also came over, one of our cook's children. It was so obvious today how they are lacking social skills, a they don't really have toys to play with, and do not play with other children. Older kids just use younger kids to serve them, ordering them to do this and that, just like the parents do. It's really sad.

Overall, they all ate well today, and they still have diarrhea, though it's not quite as bad as it was, and less frequent.

An hour after lunch, Sammy went to bed for his afternoon nap. I met with some of the new children we want to sponsor to find out their information, and talked about some work stuff with Paul. I was pretty tired, and Emmy was cranky, so he went to bed, but he never slept, not even when he was lying on me, so I didn't either.

At 5 pm they had dinner. It turns out that they LOVE yoghurt, especially Tammy, who ate a lot of it today. And I had thought we had too much yoghurt, now it turns out we have too little!

After being in the bathtub where Emmy got to play, forgetting his crankiness and tiredness for a while, we put them to bed. Emmy fell asleep fast, and Sammy now falls asleep again without crying like he used to, but the girl needed time as always, and started crying every time I walked away from their bed.

And tonight we were busy packing and getting everything ready for our departure tomorrow. Our Malian kids also came over to pick out some clothes they needed, Sanaba got to talk to one of her two sponsors, and I ate some food and started doing office work. Now it's 1:30 am, and I'm so very tired, that I'll have to go to bed right away.

I will keep you informed as we travel back, so you can pray specifically, as long as I have internet access. We sure need your prayers! Bamako has more bag checks than any other airport I know, and last time they even wanted to take away the baby milk!