The Quilt - Back in August, Tara started allowing me (Mimi) to lurk in the background on various Internet Adoption Groups she belongs to as long as I promised to NOT post any messages :) Anyway, there was a lot of chatter about the 100 Wishes Quilt. So the story goes, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jai Bei (a.k.a. 100 Wishes Quilt) to welcome and celebrate a new life. The family would invite friends and family to contribute a square of cloth along with their wish for the baby. Part of the square went into the quilt and the other part would be placed in a scrapbook along with the wish for the child. These quilts are said to contain the luck, energy, and good wishes from those who contributed a piece of cloth. Whether it is really a Chinese tradition or not, it has certainly become a tradition of many of the adoptive families who are waiting to travel to China for their babies to make one of these quilts.

I decided that this would be something special to do for Tara and Dirk and the new baby (or babies) we were all anxiously waiting for. I called up Tamera Todd to see if she was willing to get involved in the project and of course Tamera is always ready to pitch in (what would we all have done without her through this process!!) As Tara and Dirk had requested and were REALLY hoping for twins, we knew we would have to have two quilts, nothing like being optimistic - and see how it's paid off! Anyway, we both started trying to reach out to as many people as possible to invite them to participate, all the time trying hard to keep this a secret as we wanted this to be a surprise. Tamera had the hard part, being the keeper of the fabric and wishes as they started rolling in. She said she couldn't wait to get home to see what had arrived in the mail each day.

Well, the quilts are still a work in progress but we were able to share this with Tara at her shower last weekend, including showing off one of the partially completed quilt tops. The response was great and our 100 Wishes Quilt has turned into something around 120 Wishes, but a person can't ever have too many good wishes so we'll just make the quilts a little bit bigger! Tamera is also putting together the scrapbook filled with the wishes and everything should be finished within the next month or so.

In the meantime, I'm posting a picture of the quilt top so everyone who sent in fabric can get a peek. If you don't see your piece, don't despair as all of the pieces have not yet made their way to the quilt top -- my piece isn't attached yet either. Can't wait for everything to be finished, especially the scrapbook. When the quilts are completed, we'll post another picture of the finished product. We hope these quilts will be a way to give Hope and Faith some sort of history, as they will someday know that while they were waiting for their Mom and Dad to come for them in China, so many people back home thought of them and loved them.

Thanks to everyone who sent in fabric and wishes -- and helped to keep the secret.