2/8/02 - I bet some of you thought I would never update this! Sorry it has been such a long time! Well, I'm now three months down and 10-11 months of waiting to go. I have to admit that the last two weeks of January were tough for me. I wanted it to be January 31st so badly and the days seemed to crawl by. So I better catch everyone up on what has happened.
First of all - I went to Charlotte on January 18th and stayed through the 21st visiting Elizabeth. We had a great time. While I was there I bought fabric for my 100 wishes quilt. What is a hundred wishes quilt? In parts of northern China it is tradition to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 wishes quilt, to celebrate a new life. The family would ask people to contribute one square each of fabric which would be sewn together to make a quilt. The quilt would then contain the luck, energy, and good wishes of all of the friends and family who contributed. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. This tradition has been incorporated by adoptive families who make their own quilts. Friends and other adoptive parents send quilt squares along with a written wish. The wishes are then gathered into a scrapbook so that as our daughters grow older, they will be able to see all of the hopes and prayers that people have wished for them. Even though I don't have a sewing machine and have never made a quilt in my life (unless you count the quilted Christmas tree ornament I made in Home Ec in 7th grade), I couldn't pass up being part of such a neat and wonderful idea. So, off I went with my sister and Mom (who was also in Charlotte) to hunt down fabric. My sister and I carefully cut out squares and once I was back home I composed wishes for other adoptive parents. The result - I have my first 30 squares. I probably will be sending requests for squares from my family and friends in the next few months - so look out for those letters!
When I got back from Charlotte, it was time to meet some new friends from the internet: Julie and Megan who are both in the process of adopting from China. Tracee, who I met awhile back and who has become a good friend, and I met them for dinner. Yes, I was the only single mother-to-be but we still all had so much in common. We had a wonderful time basically talking about how only other adoptive parents really can understand what is going on in our minds! :-) Tracee brought us each a present: a candle, a rattle, and an Angel of Patience. The angel sits on my bookshelf trying to remind me that this is a very long road and that I'm going to have to be patient to get to the end of it! |
