Surprise Surprise!

Hello Everyone!
I've finally emerged from my fever-induced haze and feel ready to write! I'm happy to report that I am feeling MUCH better. I'm pretty sure I had strep throat. The good thing about strep is that once you start the antibiotics, you start feeling better quickly. I started taking the spare antibiotics that our doctor gave us "just in case" yesterday and I'm almost 100% today. Terra, on the other hand has not been quite so lucky. We had one of the grandmothers that's traveling with our group, who also happens to be a retired pediatrician, come take a look at Terra today. She said that Terra does not have pneumonia, but that the upper part of her lungs are very congested. She said we should absolutely continue the antibiotics and Tylenol. I think that she's starting to come around, she was much perkier this afternoon, as you'll see in the pictures below and tonight is her first night without a fever in the past 4 days - good sign!! Now we just have to get rid of that congestion before we board the plane on Friday morning - keep your fingers crossed!

Since we've barely left our hotel room in 3 days, I thought I'd post a picture of the view from our window. :) You can't see it in this picture, but Jorie is especially impressed with the building that has a pool on the roof. :) I'm hoping I'll remember to get some pictures of our hotel lobby tomorrow - the waterfall down there is so pretty. We had to stay in the room this morning while our guides went to the consulate for us and completed all of the paperwork. They wanted to be sure they could contact us, in case anything went awry. Luckily, all went well and the paperwork for Terra's visa is complete. We should be able to pick up her visa tomorrow after our oath ceremony - that's where we swear to take care of Terra. I'll write more about it tomorrow, after we actually do it. We ventured out for about an hour around lunchtime to get out of the room, do a little shopping and get some lunch. Jeff went out on a 4 hour shopping spree this afternoon! As he left for the wholesale electronics market, Jorie said, "Is he coming back?" and I said, "I certainly hope so!" But, after the first three hours passed, I began to have doubts myself! :) He did return and I think the shopping did him a lot of good. He came back with a smile on his face and an ipod in his pocket. :)
While Jeff was out shopping, the girls and I spent some time together. Here's a picture of Jorie showing Terra her quilt. We were telling her who each square of fabric was from and how much everyone loves her. She really enjoyed the quilt, pointing at the different fabrics and smiling.
It looks like Uncle Billy is getting his wish of introducing the Boston Red Sox early. Terra especially loved his addition to the quilt. She kept pointing to the letters. She pointed to many other fabrics too, but kept coming right back to Uncle Billy's squares. :)
This was a huge surprise to me - Terra can crawl! I had no idea, she had not yet attempted to crawl anywhere, so I thought that she didn't know how. I figured we were going straight to walking. Well, she was sitting on the bed as I was taking pictures and all of a sudden took off crawling straight at me. I snapped this picture then dropped the camera to catch her before she went right off the edge of the bed. She's looking a little pale and tired, but overall not so bad.
This is Jorie's favorite part of our hotel room. She likes to stand behind the curtains there, then comes out onto the rectangle in the floor to dance. The rectangle is, of course, her stage - where she sings and dances her heart out. Terra thinks it's hysterical - she laughs and points at her big sister. I'm sure the two of them will be dancing together in no time.
Here was the second surprise of the day - Terra walks pretty steadily! She was walking all over the room holding my hand today, we even did a few laps around the hall in the hotel - but, here she is walking right at me without holding on to anything! I have a feeling that once she's really comfortable with us, she's just going to take off and we'll be chasing after her. She has SO much energy and quite a personality! I can't wait to see what the combination will bring in the future - should be a very interesting and wonderful adventure!