4 years 11 months 10 days

Day 1805. I can't believe it's been six days since my last blogpost! It's been a busy week of teaching for me. As for the kids, Tammy and Emmy went to kindergarten every morning, while Sammy's kindergarten is closed right now, so he's home with us. We had nothing going on in the afternoons all week. The Caritas family helper Christine, who's our friend, came back on Monday for the first time in over 1.5 years to help, and she came on Thursday as well. As I happened to not have any students Thursday afternoon, which is unusual, I got to take some pictures of Christine with the kids. I was working in my downstairs office, while they were playing right there, on the other side of the shelves. They were having fun, as always.

Then the kids wanted to go outside, and I helped with that. Emmy wanted to play soccer, while Tammy and Sammy were playing in the sandbox. Once they were done, they all went back in through the front door and straight into the bathtub to rinse all the sand off. Then they had some more time playing with Christine until she had to leave at 5 pm. They are eager for her to return.

Yesterday, Saturday, I was really glad not to have to get up early and that everyone was staying home. Randy made their breakfast, as usual, and then decided to take all the kids to the playground. That gave me some quiet to sleep in, and I ended up sleeping until 11 am, which I rarely get to do, and I sure needed it and was very thankful for it. A few minutes later Randy and the kids already returned, and we had lunch early.

In the afternoon, I had to write my way overdue newsletter. The kids wanted to have some water fun, and I interrupted my work to make that happen. I connected our new water hose upstairs and took it to the balcony so that I could pour the water down to where the kids were. However, Randy couldn't find the small blowup pool. And so I just let the water rain down on Emmy, who greatly enjoyed it. Suddenly there was a pop. I ran to the bathroom and saw that the hose had burst. I guess I shouldn't have turned up the water to maximum. The water fun was over - for that day. A new hose is on the way, and so is a little pool. And I still got to finish and send out my newsletter, and do the German translation that I finished by midnight.

This morning I was not so lucky as to be able to sleep in; I think I like church at night. We had decided to check out another church this morning, one we had never been to, and one that has only been around in Vienna for four years - Hillsong Church. I knew they had a kids' program going on today.

We left the house at 10 am, took the subway and then the tram. It was a nice, cooler day, but also a bit rainy. We went downdown, where the church was meeting in a historic building. We were warmly greeted and went inside, going straight to the children's church rooms. I then stayed with them there, while Randy went to the sanctuary for the service.

At first they were all just playing by themselves. Tammy sat down to draw, Emmy to play a board game with two others, and Sammy and I sat down on the floor. He crawled through a tunnel, then went inside the little tent there. He then started playing with me, having great fun. After a while, they called everyone to the front and turned the TV on, where they were playing a few worship videos with actions. Emmy was trying to do the actions, while Tammy sat down on the floor, which suprised me. I had Sammy, making it fun for him.

After the songs, everyone sat down on the floor, and one lady asked for praise reports and prayer requests. One little boy had a long list of things he was thankful to God for. Another child asked for prayer for a sick relative, that was it. Then the lady prayed.

Next it was story time, and another lady was in charge of that. She had put a lot of effort in preparing her story, with lots of props, including pictures she was displaying on the TV screen to go with her story. Two other adults were acting out the story she was telling; it was on the armor of God. Tammy and Emmy listened and watched very attentively.

After the story it was snack time. Everyone sat down at the table and had cookies, fruit and vegetables. And then Randy already arrived, even though it wasn't 11 am yet. He took my place, and I left to go to the sanctuary. They then did some crafts for the rest of the time. Tammy surprised me again in how well she now colors between the lines.

I found my way downstairs to the sanctuary and ended up sitting in the same chair where Randy had sat, I found out later. A man was preaching on the video screen; he was in a town in Germany. I listened to him, in the end he prayed, and the service was over. It was about 12:30 pm. I talked to an usher asking whether the preaching was always on the screen, and she said no. Someone interrupted us and that was the end of our conversation. I went upstairs and to the kids' rooms, where I ended up talking to one of the ladies for a few minutes and telling her about Mali. Then we left.

The kids were hungry, and there was a McDonald's right there, so it was perfect for our weekly meal there. It was a very busy place, and so I was glad, when a booth became available, since it had enough space for us. We had a good time eating together, even though Emmy didn't make it to the bathroom in time and ended up with wet pants.

After our meal, we took the tram and subway to go back home, where we arrived around 2:15 pm. By 3 pm I was so tired I had to lie down for a nap; I was thankful I had the time for it. Eventually Randy took the kids downstairs to play. Once I woke up, it was time to get some work done, as I hadn't sent out the German newsletter yet. Randy and the kids soon came back upstairs, and as has been the case this past week, I started making their dinner early as they were so hungry, which also means they've been in bed a little earlier than they used to. Tonight, however, it took Sammy a long time to fall asleep, which is unusual. His siblings were asleep before him.