100 Good Wishes Quilt

100 Good Wishes Quilt

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. These quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck/energy of the people who wore these clothes when she is wrapped in the quilt . The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth will go into a creative memory notebook with the wish for the child. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.
We would like to ask you to be a part of this tradition as we assemble a quilt for our new daughter, Mia Abigail, waiting in China. Along with a patch of cloth please send a small note card with your good wishes, name and a small swatch of the fabric glued or stapled to it. We will make a book with the cards so she will be one day be able to identify where each piece of her quilt came from.
If you would like to see pictures of this type of quilt already finished you can visit the web site http://home.comcast.net/~jknorman/quilt/photos.html
Ideas for selecting fabric:
Select a fabric that is meaningful to you.
100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better.
If you are purchasing new fabric have the salesperson cut only ¼ of a yard. (Or you can purchase something called a “Fat Quarter” at many stores like Michaels, JoAnns, WalMart.)
I only need about a 6” square but any remnants can be used for the borders.
There is no color scheme.
Please do as many squares as your family would like. You can choose to do one square from your entire family or let each person choose their own fabric and send multiple squares.
Due Date February 20th. (Sorry it has to be so early but I would really like to get the quilt made before our trip to China)

Sorting through Mom's fabric to pick a square for Mia's Quilt 

Sample for 100 Good Wishes Quilt 

Poem for Mia

I recently ran across this poem on another web-site. I thought it was beautiful. I plan to use it some way in my scrap book.
Dear Sweet Daughter,
As a girl I had a common dream, to be a mom someday. My baby would have eyes of blue and hair the hue of hay.
But now my dreams have been transformed. New visions fill my head. Now the tresses that I long to stroke are raven black instead.
And in my dreams those eyes are not so big or blue or round. No in my dreams they're almond shaped and colored cocoa brown.
And in my dreams my arms can stretch across the enormous seas. They reach half-way around the world and hold you close to me.
As you grow in your mother's womb, carefully knit together, you're also growing in my heart, where you will stay forever.
And in my dreams the moment that your mother says good-bye, I'll be right there to comfort you and hold you as you cry.
Our features may not look alike; we're different as can be. But still I know the Father has created you for me.
And though I've not yet seen your face, or held your tiny hands, and though we're half a world apart in very different lands,
I'll be right there to get you just as soon as God allows. But 'til He says the time is right I give to you this vow.
I'll pray for your protection every day on bended knee. For God to hold you in His arms, until you're here with me.
-Gayle Leubecker

Some Staff from our adoption agency in the matching room. Each folder belongs to a different family waiting for their child. 

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

I wish there was more to post but now we WAIT. We should receive our referral in April. This will be the day we discover who are daughter is, what she looks like, and how old she is. We have requested a baby girl as young as possible. Usually the babies are about 9 months at referral time.
After our referral we will travel to China about 6 - 8 weeks later. We already know there are 10 families in our travel group. They are from all over the USA.
If you would like to see some pictures of the last group to get their referrals go to http://www.dubiz.com/dtcjuly2004/ReferralPhotos1.html It is so neat to look at all these precious faces and know they are just a few months away from a new life and a forever family.
We plan to use this site on our trip in May/June for pictures and daily updates of our trip. So for now there may not be much to post but in April there will be one special picture on this site of our Mia Abigail.

At Disney World  

Kaylee's first dance recital 

The Dossier, doesn't look like much but each of these stacks is about 4 layers thick. The red seal on each is done by the Chinese Consulate 

We are DTC

Our paperwork has been sent to China. Our official DTC date is Oct. 8. Now that all the paperwork is done we will WAIT. We will probably not hear anything else until we receive a referral of our daughter in about 6 months. We will then travel about 2 months after that.

First Attempt at Water skiing 

Chinese Consulate

Our paperwork has been sealed by the Texas Secretary of State. The papers are now on their way to the Chinese Consulate in Houston. Once they are checked and stamped they will return them to us. We will then rush them off to our Agency in Virgina. All the paperwork together is called a Dossier. It looks like our Dossier could be sent to China on Oct. 8. Our agency is www.awaa.org.

Here we grow again

A major milestone took place today in our adoption process. We received our I-171 in the mail. We were fingerprinted last Tuesday and our prints were run through the FBI database. It only took 9 days to receive our form. We are amazed. Some people wait up to 3 months for this form. This means we only have a few more steps before we send our paperwork to China.

June 2004