Day 10: The best anniversary present EVER!

I awoke this morning and glanced at my emails. The subject line on an email from Shane read "Happy Anniversary".  Good thing he reminded me as our days are blurring together. It's hard to remember what day of the week it is let alone the date of the month. Today marks our 14th Anniversary. Wow, the years have sure flown by.

Our day started out as usual with Shane, Nana Bev and the boys heading down to breakfast at our apartment while Rose and I got some extra zzz's.  Shane brought me back breakfast from Oma - a mocha and chocolate croissant - YUM!

I noticed the bill from Plenitud laying on the table. We're getting what seems like a great rate for a 3 bedroom apartment at $80/night, but then I saw they were charging us $40 for a continental breakfast for 4 people. Hmmm...that seems crazy expensive for Colombia! This may just be the last morning of having breakfast out - cereal and yogurt from the grocery store will have to do!

We spent our morning at the apartment again. It was raining off and on all morning, but that didn't stop Cole and Nana Bev from venturing outside to explore the courtyard of our apartment complex. Rose and Owen stayed inside - Rose pretending to be a puppy most of the time and Owen getting in his daily dose of electronics.

Rose in her puppy dog house

Owen playing Roblox

Cole & Rose playing Angry Birds

To celebrate our anniversary, we had lunch at Crepes and Waffles in the Unicentro shopping center. It had been 10 years since the last time we ate there. It's not the ideal location for a gluten/dairy-free kiddo. In fact they have nothing on the menu that Cole can eat. Thankfully he didn't even care that the other two kids were chowing down on chocolate covered waffles and ice cream.  He was more than happy with his burger and fries he got to-go from the Whooper King.

Owen loved his meal (which was more like dessert!) and gobbled it up before our food even arrived!

By the time we finished up and paid, it was nearly time for our afternoon hospital visit. Once again, we dropped Nana and the kids off at the apartment, and Patricia picked Shane and me up for the drive to Simon Bolivar Hospital. The rain was coming down as she maneuvered the vehicle through the crazy Bogota traffic. My stomach is always in knots on the trip to the hospital, not knowing what could have happened to Kate during the last 24 hours since we last saw her. As we got closer to the hospital, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone through. This was a sign of good things to come!

Patricia brought us up to the hospital door once again. There was a new security guard working and he would only let one person in, so I went in alone while Patricia and Shane stayed behind. When I walked in, the FANA nurse was holding Kate. She looked like a little pink Eskimo dressed in big thick fleece pjs. She was so warm! Then I noticed she no longer had the IV in her neck! That was a great sign! She now only has the nasal cannula for her oxygen therapy.

I immediately noticed how much happier she was today. She is definitely feeling a million times better! I stood her on my lap and she bounced and bounced and SMILED!! This was the first time I've seen her smile! About 30 minutes later, Shane and Patricia showed up. We were all thrilled seeing our little Kate so happy. She even smiled through her nebulizer treatment. Just look at that amazing smile! It was the best anniversary present we could have ever received!!

She was constantly on the move - swinging her arms and kicking her legs. She really wanted to move today. Just look at those strong legs!

She has a couple teeth trying to pop in so everything goes in her mouth. No, she wasn't giving her owl a big wet kiss, she was trying to bite its beak!

Kate's bottle was delivered and this was the first time she didn't scream for it. She actually wasn't even hungry and just wanted to play.

We spoke with the doctor who said her oxygen was decreased to .25 liters. If she continues to hold steady over a 24 hour period, they will decrease it again to .1 liter. Her breathing rate is still elevated and her lungs still very crackly due to the pneumonia so we are cautiously optimistic that by Thursday she will be off the oxygen and released from the hospital soon afterwards.

Shane read Kate a book - she really likes the touch-and-feel books. She touched the various textures and stared intently at the pictures.

Then it was my turn to hold her again! I gave the bottle another try and this time she ate almost all of it.

She started to rub her eyes afterwards. It's her telltale sign that she is ready for a nap. Soon she dozed off to sleep.

After a 30 minute snooze, it was time for us to leave. Try as I might, I could not keep her asleep. She woke up as soon as I stood up to lay her down, but she quickly settled into her bed playing with a toy.

Before we left, she flashed us one more adorable smile!

It was nearly impossible to leave her behind. Please pray that she gets released from the hospital on Thursday so she can join our family on Friday. We can't bear missing any more days with our little nugget.