4 years 6 months 19 days

Day 1663. Last night it was nearly 3 am before I made it to bed. Tammy and Emmy both joined me in bed at some point during the night. In the morning, it was Sammy who was up first, as usual, and as he sleeps on the floor, he crawled into our room, where we all were. Surprisingly it was Tammy who got up next, while Emmy continued sleeping next to me for a while. Eventually he got up as well, and I got up last. We got them and ourselves ready and left the house just after 9:30 to drive to church.

It takes a while to strap them into their car seats, and for Randy to be able to make it out of the tight space where we park. It's only a 5 minute ride to church, so we got there on time for the 10 am missionary brunch. We found a table with easy access where there was also room for Sammy's wheelchair. Once the buffet was opened, I went there right away to bring food for the five of us to our table before it was too crowded, and it worked out well. We all ate plenty. At 10:45 the speakers started talking. The kids behaved really well this time, sitting still and listening. Only Sammy started getting a little antsy, so Randy eventually left the tent with him, and Emmy followed them. Only Tammy stayed with me.

At noon it was over, and again we left quickly to be first in line to pick up our meal tickets. Once we were done, we walked back to our car to drive to our Airbnb. It was about noon. Back at the house, the kids got their tablets for their time of rest, while Randy lay down with Sammy, trying to get him to sleep, which did not work. Randy then slept by himself, and I also lay down and got a much-needed nap in. Just after 2 pm we got up again and got ready to leave the house to return to the conference, which we did at 2:30.

Back at the church, we took the children to the kids' rooms and left all three of them there. We thought we'd give it a try to see whether it would work for Sammy. Last summer it didn't, but now he's used to being in kindergarten without us. And lo and behold, the three of them were there for 3 hours without us, and there were no issues. Praise God! Randy and I went to the sanctuary, where the 3 pm meeting was about to start. They had a half-hour break after the first workshop, where we stayed at our table to talk to people, then there was a second workshop. Just before it ended, someone came to get Randy because Sammy needed a diaper. I was unaware of that, when I went to the kids' room at 6 pm to pick them up. They were happy to see me, and Emmy proudly showed me right away the necklace he had made for me. He had also made a bracelet for Daddy. And Tammy showed me her drawing. Sammy was happy to see me as well. We then left together, went briefly to our table, and then to the tent to have dinner.

They only hand out two meal tickets per table, so we only had two plates of food for the five of us. We had goulash with potatoes and two bread rolls with that, and also got two drinks. We all shared, and they let me put some sausage into the bread rolls. Once we were done eating, we went back inside. I went to our table, while Randy went to the baby room with the kids so they could play there until they could go to the kids' program. At 7:15 Randy took them there, then he went to the tent to get some tea. While I was waiting for him to return, a lady came to me and asked for Randy, because Sammy was not happy. Randy then went there and stayed in the kids' room. Sammy was pretty tired and did not want to be without any parent. I then wondered whether we should just go home so they could go to bed earlier for once, but when I went to the kids' room, they were about to take the kids to the sanctuary to enjoy worship, and Tammy and Emmy wanted to stay, so I left again.

I enjoyed worship myself, then there were some presentations. Eventually I thought that it might be a good idea to go home, as few people would come to our table after the meeting anyway, and I didn't want to get home that late again. I went to the kids' room, where the kids were all watching a Christian cartoon. They didn't really want to leave at first, but we all left the room and got ready to leave the church. We then saw an old friend we hadn't seen in years and talked with him for a little bit. At 9:30 pm we finally left.

Once home, the kids had some snacks, then I showered them all, as they had skipped two nights. We put their pj's on and put them to bed. Sammy fell asleep right away. The other two still wanted a story. I read it to them, then prayed for them, then stayed with them. Soon they were both asleep as well, and I left to go turn my computer on and write my report. I only took two pictures today, so they were taken care of quicky. Now it's just after midnight, and I'll finally make it to bed earlier.