Day 1364. This morning it was 6 am, when Emmy woke me up. I tried to convince him to go back to sleep. It was way too early to be up, and I didn't want his siblings up, but it didn't take long until first Sammy and then Tammy were awake as well. I just wanted to get some sleep so bad! I let the kids watch Kasperl and turned children's songs on for Sammy and think that I fell asleep again as a result. At 9 am we did get up, and I made sweetbread with jam for Emmy, but today even he didn't eat it. I guess that's the end of the story of me trying to give them something else to eat. It's back to Daddy's oatmeal.
After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, we gathered the box full of birthday stuff for the party and put it on the cart with the drinks for the party, then I left with all three kids to go to the big room we have in our use that is for residents to use for events. I had reserved the room for all day today.
Randy came a few minutes later with the cart full of stuff, and we started preparing for the party. We opened boxes and packages and got plates, napkins and silverware out that I placed, where it needed to be. We had plenty of balloons to blow up, and the kids wanted to help and did a good job. They blew them up, then I tied them. Some tasted really disgusting. After a while the kids didn't want to blow up any more balloons and started playing with them instead, and they were rather wild. A few balloons popped already. Sammy had one balloon for the whole time that he tried (and failed) to blow up, but he didn't seem to mind and just enjoyed playing with it. He was in the wheelchair at first, then we got him out but had to keep an eye on him so he didn't pull on the tablecloths.
It all took us longer than I had thought, as there was quite a few things to get done. I had some plastic champagne glasses that still needed the bottoms stuck on them, and the kids did a great job doing that and enjoyed it. In the end we hung up the two posters on the wall, then we decided it was time to call it quits and return to our appartment. The kids were ready and even asking for food, and it was already past noon.
Given the advanced hour, I decided to bake two pizzas I had in the fridge. The kids helped, adding more cheese, salami and mushrooms to the pizzas, then I put them into the oven. Ten minutes later we were done and finally sat down to eat.
We had just started eating, when the doorbell rang. Sonja had arrived early to help, which was great news. She joined us for lunch. By the time we were done eating, it was already after bedtime, nearly 1:30 pm. I quickly put them all to bed and sat down by them. Emmy fell asleep first, Tammy also got quiet after a while, but not Sammy. I had work to do, so I finally asked Sonja, whether she could sit with him. Unfortunately, Sammy never went to sleep; I guess there was too much going on. He was alright anyway all afternoon, and then fell asleep quickly at night.
Walking away from the kids' bedroom, I returned to the party room to hang up the balloons by the entrance, as well as a sign pointing the direction to go, so that everyone would find us. Then I got changed and ready, did a few last things, and since I found the boys up, I took them to the party room, where Sonja was at first, then Randy, and once Tammy was up, we were all over there.
I had invited a lot of people, some had said they're coming, others had canceled, some last minute. And I had some nice surprises. One person who had never responded showed up; I hadn't seen him in a long time so it was a very nice surprise, and we got to talk a little. Another person from my teenage years had called me yesterday to let me know he was coming, but he only came at 6 pm, when most people were gone already. That gave us the opportunity to spend a lot of time talking. Another visitor I hadn't seen in over 3 years was the nurse who had taken care of the babies during the 5 weeks they were in the second hospital. She had kept in touch on Facebook and finally got to see the kids again in person. She even brought gifts for them and spent a lot of time playing with them, especially with Sammy.
The first one to arrive was an old friend, Brigitte, who came with another guy from church who was lonely. Brigitte was so sweet to help with the food people were bringing, putting it on plates and cutting it, as well as the big filled pretzels we had bought. Then people started coming one after another. My Mom came as well as my brother with his family. The pastor from my sending church came with part of his family. Then there was another couple from the same church, and an old friend from there as well I hadn't had a chance to talk with in a long time. My good friend I see more than most other people came with her husband and son, and another friend I rarely see came with her family. So we had a good number of small kids. Tammy and Emmy went straight to the sand pit, and one of the other kids joined them there. They were having fun there. Some other kids had fun pushing Sammy around in his wheelchair, though he didn't seem that excited about it.
Once a good number of people had arrived, I just said a few words to let everyone know where things were and what there was. Not just the food and drinks, but I had a table with Mali flyers and photobooks from my whole life, wedding photos, Mali photo books, and photobooks of the kids. Some people looked at some of them, but not much. I also told them about the wooden 50 sign I had that I asked everyone to sign, like a guest book for today. It's a nice souvenir from this birthday.
Then everyone was singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me. I had bought some throw-away champagne glasses (made of plastic), and since we had not filled them and handed them out yet, everyone sang a second time once everyone had a glass. It was really sweet. The first time I turned my phone on and filmed everyone singing to me.
Some time later Gabi said it was time for everyone to come inside as she had something planned. I was given a box, a birthday gift, and told I needed to accomplish tasks to open each layer. How fun! I was asked to choose a person in the room. I chose our friend who always drives us to the airport. Then she said I had to teach him how to say "Happy Birthday" in Bambara. I told them they don't celebrate birthdays, but said something that would work. He repeated it a few times and nearly got it right. I was allowed to open the first layer, and it had all kinds of little things that are useful for someone over 50 that made me smile. Then they gave me a riddle. Unfortunately for them I already knew it and gave the answer right away. For the third task I was taken outside the room and told I needed to play a T-rex, and everyone had to guess what I was playing. Not my kind of game! I went inside and started pantomiming a T-rex to the best of my abilities. People were saying all kinds of things, weird things. Only one person said "dinosaur", which he was not supposed to say, I found out later. After some time I said I give up. They told me to try something else, but I did not know what else to try. I sat down and was then told that everyone knew what I was playing but they were not allowed to say it. Oh great! It was just amusement for everyone! I opened the last layer to finally make it to the inside and find the precious gift.
Some gifts had gathered in one spot, and I went over there to start opening them. My Mom was there, when I opened her gift. It was a golden necklace. I hadn't had any since just after the kids were born, as they had torn it. It was a really thoughtful gift. But the most special gift was the birthday cake she'd made me. It was my favorite cake that my Grandma had always made me on my birthday. There was so much going on that I didn't even quite realize the significance right away. I did have it taken straight to our apartment, though, as it was too special to put out with the other cakes. When I texted with my Mom later that night, I started crying over it. It was the very first time my Mom had made this cake in her life. And she did it just for me. That touched my heart deeply, as I see my Mom rarely and we talk rarely as well. It's been about 25 years since my Grandma last made this cake for me, so it's been that long since I last ate it. Needless to say, it tastes great!
After I had opened all the gifts, I went back to talking with people and enjoyed it, as I never get to socialise with anyone. It's always just household, kids and work. At 5 pm people started leaving, and only a few stayed. Then another really good friend arrived with her husband; I've known her for 30 years. With fewer people there it was easier to spend time talking with them. And at 6 pm the friend from my teenage years arrived, and I had plenty of time talking with him. He had to leave at about 7:30 pm, then I still gave a tour to three friends who hadn't seen our apartment yet. We sat down in our living room, and as it was about 8 pm, it was time to say good-bye to the remaining people. It was time for the kids to go to bed, and our cleaning lady had arrived to clean the party room so it looked again the way it was in the beginning.
After the last people had left, Randy started moving all the stuff from the party room to our apartment, while the cleaning lady started cleaning up. I took the kids upstairs and put them into the bathtub, then put their pj's on and sat down with them to read a Bible story, even though it was late. They don't want to go to bed without it. Randy was still gone tidying and cleaning up, but he soon returned. By about 8:45 pm they were in bed, after I had prayed for them and flown them into bed. I sat down by them, and Sammy was asleep first, not having had a nap, and the others soon followed suit. I left them close to 9:30 pm, Tammy having been the last one to sleep.
I had been so busy at the party it took me a long time before I got a bite to eat. So I got myself some more food and sat down to eat in peace. Randy and I were both really tired. After having eaten, I started working on the pictures, but I was so tired that my eyes started falling shut. I soon realized there was no way I was gonna finish the pictures and write the report. Randy had also fallen asleep sitting in the chair. I stopped working on the pictures and started writing the report, then quit. I still had to clean up the kitchen and turn the dishwasher on. At 1 pm we both went to bed and were asleep quickly.
