First two days together

Jet lag has made it so tough to post.  By the time we are sitting still, we are also feeling drugged.  Doing my best now to capture the past two days before I succumb to the jet lag giant.

Can I just say what a blessing this little girl is?  She has captured our hearts.  It is no wonder that everyone at the orphanage was in love with her.  She has such a spirit!  She is a Pendergrast through and through.  We are finding ourselves in constant awe of the fact that God could link us with a child halfway around the globe whose spirit is so enmeshed with ours.  God is so good!

After Gotcha yesterday, we went to Feng Lin's finding place because it was so close to the orphanage.  Heat-breaking, but so grateful to have photos for Feng Lin of the place where her birth mother once stepped.  Then we had an amazing lunch at a very small, local restaurant.  We discovered that Feng Lin loves food, but is also quite discriminate.  She would spout off a long monologue about which food she wanted and which she didn't.  Thank God for Susan there translating!
Next, we had to get our picture taken for the Adoption Certificate.  The only place that could take the photo was booked so we had to have a Mentos moment and have our guide, Susan, take the picture in front of a red train (had to be red background.)
We spent the rest of the day in our room getting to know Feng Lin.  Let me tell you, this girl is smart, sweet, sassy, and absolutely spirited!  We were told at the orphanage that she was a chatterbox and that is no joke!  She and Quinn are gonna have to fight for talking time!  She could have cared less that we had no clue what she was saying most of the time.  She would just say it louder and louder and louder as if that would help our comprehension.  She also knew a lot of English words-apple, banana, mommy, daddy, some colors, numbers, etc.  She wanted to know where we both were at all times.  If baba went to the bathroom, she'd walk around saying "baba, baba!"  She was not shy at all about telling us when she needed to use the bathroom.  At one point she was trying to get on the seat herself and almost fell in!  I caught her and she started cracking up laughing!  No fear.  Whenever she almost falls or spills or some other catastrophe is averted, she cracks up laughing.  And her laugh is a hilarious belly laugh like her sister's.   
Feng Lin is absolutely in love with several things.  1. Arts and crafts.  She has already gone through all the stickers and notebooks I brought so we went shopping for more today.  2. Electronics.  We brought a Nabi for her and she LOVES it, especially the puzzle apps.  This girl had got some serious visual spatial skills. 3. Bling. Bling. And More Bling!  We brought pop beads.  She has made a million necklaces and bracelets with them.  Yesterday we all had to have them.  When Chris would sneakily take his off, she would bring it to him again.  She also saw the hair clips I had packed and put them all in at once:)  Six hairbows all over her head!  She is a hot mess! 4. TALKING.  Susan has been in awe of ho much and how well Feng Lin talks.  She will be having a conversation with her and laugh and Chris and I are just watching them thinking "What are they talking about?!"  Then Susan will say, "She is so smart.  She is so funny!"
Today we had our adoption registration completed.  Feng Lin is officially our daughter!  Woo hoo!  The assistant director of the orphanage was there and was telling us that other than a twelve year old (the one in yesterday's photo) Feng Lin was the boss.  I can totally see that.  She knows what she wants and doesn't want and is not afraid to say it. 
Afterward, we went shopping for some shoes and crafts and groceries.  Have I mentioned that this girl is a feisty miss priss and that the shoe we bought were two sizes too large?  She immediately went to the shoes she wanted.  No ifs ands or buts.  Ater we purchased said pink boots with pom-poms hanging from them, we went to the arts department.  Stamps, notebooks, stickers.  She was SO excited!  When they tried to hand the bag to Chris, she took it and proudly marched around the rest of the store with it (with the pink boots on-they couldn't go in the box!)  What struck me the most was that everywhere we went she waould say "There are a lot of ___ here," to Susan.  A lot of shoes, a lot of watches, a lot of coats.  She had probably never been to a shopping mall.  I had the same thought at the grocery store.  She was amazed by all the food.  Despite this beautiful child's confident nature, she has had so few life experiences.  We are so so blessed to be able to give her those experiences.
Two questions that may be on our families' minds...hows her back?  Does she like baths?
Back is not so good, though it doesn't slow her down.  Without her brace on, she has a significant curvature to the right.  She will need surgery vey soon after we get home.  She has a scar the length of her back and stretch marks on the right side where her skin stretched after her first surgery when she was finally upright.  The brace is cumbersome for her, but she manages to bend, lift and go crazy with it on.
Second question...she loves water!  Thought not on her face.  She played in the bath tonight and washed herself as she had obviously been taught.  Can I just say again how amazing her care was?  Amazing!
I could write all night now that I've gotten started, but just one last thing I want to say before I crash.  Feng Lin has probably taught me more Mandarin than I have taught her English.  My Chinese for Adoptive Parents book has been my bible.  When I tell her something from the book, she corrects my pronunciation, then immediately complies with whatever my request is...brush teeth, naptime, time to eat, time to go, time to put on pajamas.  She is such a sweetie!  We are smitten.  Totally smitten!  Cannot wait to see our four kiddos together!  It is going to be a blast!
Love to all.