4 years 27 days

Day 1487. What a first night! I was up a lot, trying to put kids to sleep. I lay down with Sammy several times. Then Emmy and Tammy were lying in my bed, so I climbed up the bunkbed to sleep in Emmy's bed, as there was room there. Eventually I returned to my own bed, even though they were still there. In the early morning hours I finally got some sleep.

But then my alarm went off at 8:20 am; I added 15 minutes, as I can get up and leave quickly. Everyone else was still asleep. Then I got up and got ready and left the house at 9 am. Since our neighbors still have our key, I had to ask Randy to get up and lock the door behind me.

I was extremely tired and exhausted, could barely keep my eyes open. I took the 9:20 train, then another train, then had quite a walk ahead of me. I tried to call Randy to ask him to get up and not stay in bed too long, so they could all adjust to the time zone here. However, he did not pick up. For the next 90 minutes I called him constantly, two different ways, but to no avail. Now he already has a reputation of not picking up, but I was still getting worried, imagining all kind of things and realizing I had no key to get in. At the dentist, it only took me 15 minutes before I walked back out. He'd redone the two fillings I had lost in America. I continued calling on my way home.

At 11:15 I was back home and relieved, when Randy opened the door for me. They were all up, but hadn't been up for long. They were just having breakfast. He said the phone had never made a sound.

I was at the end of my rope and lay down. It turned out I was pretty sick. My head was exploding, my throat's stil hurting and my nose stuffed up. I needed sleep bad and was unable to do anything. Randy finally took them downstairs, which allowed me to actually fall asleep. However, he forgot to close the gate, and so Emmy came and woke me up. It was the only good sleep I'd had all day, so I was not happy at all. They finally up came upstairs and started watching stuff or using their tablets. At 2 pm I put a lasagna into the oven, which was about all I could do. I took some headache medications, which helped somewhat. I was supposed to teach 4 hours today, but I didn't see how I'd be able to. I canceled two lessons, and a student canceled one, that left only my 4 pm lesson. I made it through that lesson, and my passion for teaching actually made me fell better.

I lay back down after. At 7 pm I started making dinner for the kids; I was feeling a little better. THen they went to bed. I even read a story to them, then I prayed for them. It was not quite 8:30 pm by the time they were in bed, but they had not taken a nap, and tomorrow we all have to get up in the morning. They actually fell asleep pretty quickly.

I had not eaten anything all day, but went to the kitchen to make myself some soup. After having eaten it, I tried to do some stuff on the computer. But I could not go on and simply closed my eyes. At 10 pm I was woken up by my alarm clock that goes off at that time every week to remind me to do the chores and Bible verses of the week for Mali and send them to Paul. I also heard Randy trying to calm down Sammy and Tammy and trying to get them to fall asleep. Unfortunately only Mommy can do that, so I got up and comforted thm, and they went back to sleep. A little while later Tammy climbed into bed with me, before I was done writing this.

Now it's nearly 11 pm, and I'm gonna do the dishes and then go to bed. Please pray for a restful night for us all.