Bai Jia Bei

Our expression of interest in being assessed as prospective adoptive parents goes in this week. Now we just need something to keep us busy for the next 2-3 years until 'gotcha day'. I've found just the thing (and it's not just about keeping us occupied, it's really very significant and special).

There's a Chinese tradition to welcome new life that involves the creation of a 100 Good Wishes quilt. Family and friends are invited to contribute a piece of fabric that are all sewn together in a quilt. I'm going to start collecting the pieces of cloth now and intend to have a beautiful collection to be able to put a quilt together to welcome our baby to her new family.

The purpose of the 100 Good wishes quilt is to create a quilt with each of the quilting squares associated with a specific person/wish. This type of quilt is fairly common in China and has become popular in the Chinese adoption community. The person sending the piece of fabric also sends a wish on a piece of paper for a scrapbook for the person who will eventually receive the quilt. The wish can be for good health or some other positive life outcome. The piece of fabric should be 100% cotton prewashed and ironed. The square should be 25cm x 25cm (10 x 10 inches), that gives us a little bit of room work with. It is ideal if you place a small piece of the fabric also on a piece of paper containing your wish so that we can associate the wish with the fabric and the person who sent the fabric.

So here's your official invitation! If you can find it in your heart and the busyness of daily life to send us a square of cloth and another smaller piece with a wish, we would just love it! (even if I/we only know you from connections on the internet.) If you need to know our snail mail address to send it, drop me an e-mail - emmaheff AT gmail dot com and I'll let you know.

There are plenty of websites about 100 Good Wishes quilts if you want to google it.