3 years 6 months 20 days

Day 1299. Early this morning Emmy left our bed to go lie down next to Sammy. A little later Sammy was then the one waking up before his brother. Soon they were all up. We had breakfast, then cleaned them up and dressed them. At 9:30 we left the house to be at church by 10 am. We parked in the nearby parking lot, got the wheelchair out, and started walking to the church.

It was just after 10, when we got there. Thankfully the front table was still free, so that we could wheel Sammy to that table. After they had prayed, I got some food for everybody, and then we got something to drink. It was a brunch for missionaries and so after an hour, somebody got up to give an exhortation. We had the opportunity to talk to the pastof of the church for a few minutes, which was nice, and talked a little to some other people. Their new friend from yesterday was there to and introduced his wife and child to us. Tammy and Emmy started running around, unable to sit any longer. After it was over, we got ready to go back to the house and left just before noon.

By noon we were back at the house, as it's only a 7-minute drive. They were all playing until nap time, which ended up starting closer to 1:30 than 1:15 pm. I lay down with Tammy on one side and Emmy on the other, while Sammy was in the single bed. Tammy was soon asleep, but Emmy was tossing and turning. I was so very tired myself, but couldn't sleep with his constant movement. In addition I was hurting bad. I had been in pain all night and all day because I had hurt my eye yesterday, and it was watering all day today and was really red. In any case, Emmy never fell asleep, and so I never could either. At 3 pm Sammy woke up and then we all got up, as it was time to return to the church. The afternoon workshops had already started at 3 pm.

By 4 pm we were back at the church, and the first workshop was still going. Randy took Emmy and Tammy to go have some cake, while I stayed with Sammy in the sanctuary for a little bit before we also went there. But I didn't stay, as the break was about to start and I needed to be at our table. Before the break had even started, I took Emmy and Tammy to the children's program, and they were looking forward to it. Randy was still giving Sammy some cake and then went with him there as well.

During the break I got to talk to some people, which is one of the purposes of being there. At 5 pm the next session started and lasted until 5:50. Randy and Sammy joined me in the sanctuary before breaktime, and Randy was playing with him. He wanted to listen to songs on the headset, but then he really just wanted to do something other than just sit there, so Randy let him pick out story chips from the bag and put in and listen to them until he'd take another one.

Randy then got the other kids before the session was over. They were rather cranky, also during the break, where I was trying to talk to the few people coming by. Some time after 6 pm we decided to go have dinner.

When we got to the tent, I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a long time and we ended up sitting together and talking, which was really nice. I hardly ever get to just talk to a friend in Vienna. After the kids were done eating, they started running around, which was just fun. They needed to be able to move a little. I stayed a little longer than I should have, as I needed to be at our table. It was 7:15, when we left the tent, and the meeting started at 7:30.

We took the kids to the children's program, and Rand stayed there because of Sammy. I enjoyed the worship in the sanctuary and got to put my arms and head on the table to rest. I was too tired, and my eye hurting too much, to do anything else. Worship was over and the talking had started, when Randy and Sammy came to stay. But Sammy was clearly tired, and it was 8:30, so we got our coats and made our way to the room where the children were. We put their shoes and coats back on, and while we did so I asked them whether they'd had fun and Emmy responded "no", with the teacher hearing it.

We walked to the car and were home by 9 pm for our last night at the Airbnb. The kids were asking for food, so they all had some snacks, while we were getting them ready for bed. It took until 10 pm for them all to be in bed, and they fell asleep quickly. I got my computer out to work on today's pictures, write my report and prepare a little for my workshop tomorrow. Please pray for our really long day tomorrow. We have to leave our accommodations and put all our stuff into the car, my workshop is late morning, then the kids need to find a place to sleep for their nap, and then we have to stay until the evening session is over, as we cannot pack up before then. And then we still have to drive home for 2+ hours, as the kids have swim class Sunday morning. Your prayers are appreciated!