Sophia's Blessing Quilt...An Open Invitation

January 1, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

While we are waiting for the arrival of our daughter, Sophia Elizabeth, from Taiwan, we are working on a project that we REALLY need your help with. We are creating something called a "100 Blessings 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. 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. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. Believing that God has called us to adopt from Taiwan, we are calling our quilt a “100 Blessings Quilt”. God, not luck, will guide Sophia’s life, so blessings are more appropriate!

We are asking you to please participate in this project. We love the idea of welcoming Sophia into our home with a quilt that represents the good wishes and blessings you are all sending her way. Here is what we would like you to do:

1. Choose ANY 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to be a design and color that you like.

2. Cut ONE 7" (pre-washed) or one 8" (un-washed) square from the fabric. Tip... if you have no idea how to work with fabric, ask for assistance at a fabric store and show them this letter. They will probably cut it for you.

3. Include your "good wish/blessing note" for Sophia. We will place all your notes in a scrapbook that we will give to our daughter someday. Also, please include a small piece of fabric on the note so we can always remember which fabric was yours!

Ideas for selecting fabric squares:

*Select a fabric that is meaningful to you.

*100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better.

*If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than 1 set of scraps. It would be so special to include good wishes/blessings from all members of your family!! In China, these quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck/good wishes.

Ideas for good wish/blessing note:

What would you wish for a child to have in his/her life? Some ideas that come to mind are good health, perseverance, compassion, and sense of humor. Or, what blessing do you wish to give to Sophia? Perhaps a favorite Bible verse you find meaningful, or other inspirational quote. Use that as a guide for your good wish/blessing note. Keep in mind that she will not see your note until she is older, of course. Also, you could write down why you chose the fabric that you sent, if that is especially meaningful, as well. Remember, please include a small piece of fabric on the note.

Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to help us create this very special keepsake for our daughter. We have created a blog entitled, “Sophia’s Blessing Quilt” (http://www.blessingquilt.blogspot.com/) that will have photos of the fabric swatches as they arrive, as well as the notes. You will be able to keep tabs with us as our “blessings” pour in! There is a link to the quilt blog from both our family blog (http://www.merrilymusingmom.blogspot.com/)and our adoption blog (http://www.oursilkroad.blogspot.com/). Feel free to pass along this information to others whom you feel might want to participate with us!

Thank you for investing in our family, and especially in our new daughter’s soon arrival from Taiwan. May God bless you richly!

Sincerely,

Dave and Terri Fisher

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If you would like to participate in this project, please leave a comment on this post that includes your e-mail address, and we will send you an e-mail with our physical address. I moderate my comments, so I will not include your e-mail address when/if I publish your comment. We can't wait to see what fun fabrics arrive from our blogging friends!

A Favorite Blog

One of the blogs I love to check on a regular basis is Second Sister Suaviloquy. I found this blog through the Etsy shop Second Sister Jewelry, when I was searching for jewelry related to adoption. As it turns out, this family is waiting to adopt a daughter from China, too! Second Sister Suaviloquy is hosting a ten-day giveaway that you might want to check out. The fun starts on December 5...and check out the Etsy shop, too, for great jewelry at reasonable prices!

My Birthday Present

My dear husband married a woman who loves giving and receiving gifts, and whose family made a big deal about birthdays and the other holidays, much more so than his family ever did. He knows that I am hard to surprise, but I love surprises, but don't tell me you are going to surprise me, or I'll try really hard to figure it out (does that make any sense?). For my birthday last month, I was sure that he had REALLY listened to me this time when I said we couldn't afford any presents, so don't get me anything (you know that game so many of us play!), but after letting me sweat it out ALL day on my birthday, he told me that he had ordered something for me, but it wasn't going to arrive until October. Of course, my first (but wrong!) response was to think that he hadn't planned ahead, but as it turns out, he had been working on this surprise for quite some time; he just had not realized how long it was going to take.

Well, today I was greeted by this box on my front stoop upon returning home from my Mom's Morning Out Bible study...

...and for anyone "in the know" about teddy bears, you know that The Vermont Teddy Bear Company is one of the best for hand made, adorable bears. In fact, while in college, a good friend of mine was from Vermont, so I had the chance to visit the factory with her, and later with Dave...and I own a few of these adorable bears, all of which bear (no pun intended!) some personal meaning to me. For example, one Mother's Day, after Benjamin was born, Dave surprised me with a mother bear and three cubs, each of which is wearing denim bib overalls with my sons' names personalized on them. (Nathaniel still needs to be represented...which was what I kind of thought might be in the box!)

Anyhow, with the help of Benjamin and Nathaniel, who were equally intrigued by this box, I tore off the mailing tape and looked inside...and this is what I found...

...a one-of-a-kind, custom made "Sophia" bear dressed in a formal silk brocade, Chinese dress, holding a fan in her hand. My husband planned all of the details of this bear with the factory, and had her made especially for me...right down to the embroidery on her paw...

Needless to say, I was VERY surprised, not only by what I received, but the special time and effort Dave put in to choosing and designing this gift to commemmorate our upcoming adoption. This bear will be another reminder to me of our little girl in China, waiting to come home!

Prayer Works...Keep Praying!

For those of you who read my last entry, I hope you have gone back to revisit Susannah via her mother's blog...she is a darling little girl who will soon be home in the US, thanks to a miraculous recovery and change of Chinese official hearts...prayer works!

So...let's keep on praying! This time, I would like to ask you to pray for my sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie and Pedro Garcia, who leave at 2:30 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for Haiti to visit for 10 days with their two little soon-to-be-adopted sons. You can read all about their experiences (provided they have some connectivity in Haiti!) on my sister's blog, www.iansadoption.blogspot.com. Pray for safety, good health, and a wonderful time with their sons. Thanks!

Finally, read this to see how God is working to provide for our adoption expenses, one need at a time. God is faithful!

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for this family in China! They need a miracle...many miracles...to bring their little daughter Susannah home. They traveled to China to adopt their daughter, not knowing that she was very sick and near death in an antiquated hospital. You can read their blog here...let's pray them all home!

Adoption Holiday Gift Fundraiser Updated Below...

"Good Fortune" Ornament

9/12/08 Update: You can now order much more than these ornaments and support our adoption efforts at the same time! All items for sale are so unique and would make one-of-a-kind gifts for family and friends. There is jewelry, tableware, art work, and so much more...visit

http://holidayadoptionfundraiser.blogspot.com/

and check out the links on the top right hand side for two slideshows full of gift ideas! As always, when you order, remember to reference our family so that we get the profit for your purchase. Thanks for supporting us, and other adoptive families, in this way!

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Chinese artisans are world renown for their intricate artwork. The ornament shown above is one of several ornaments you can purchase to help us in our quest to adopt from China. These ornaments are painted on the inside, a technique that has been perfected in Chinese handiwork. In addition to "good fortune", you can choose ornaments containing the Chinese characters for "peace", "love", and "double happiness". Click here to check them all out! The way this works is you place an order from the website, and designate "The Fisher Family" as the beneficiary of your order. At the end of the sale, we will receive the profit from all sales where we have been designated, as well as a portion of the proceeds that may not have been specifically designated to any one family. There are many families participating in this fundraiser--you can read all about it on the website. These ornaments would make very unique and beautiful Christmas gifts, but you want to order early, as they do come directly from China and last year we sold out. There are a couple of specials running in September which you can also read about on the website. Thanks for taking the time to check this out and for helping us on our journey to Sophia in China!

Check Out Our Adoption Blog!

Don't forget to check out our adoption blog, Our Silk Road, via the beautiful red link on the right! The adoption ball is starting to roll, so there will be more posts there in the days and weeks to come! Join with us as we bring our little Sophia from China to home!

New Blog...Check It Out!

See that fancy, smancy button underneath my profile on the righthand side of my blog? The one that says "Our Silk Road"? Click on it and you will be taken to our new blog! Many thanks to Ragan and her expertise at designing the blog (and the button!) for us. You can find a link to her work on the new site if you are at all interested. You will also find in the first post the reason for the new blog...if you can't figure it out by the blog header! We are excited about taking the first baby steps in this new adventure for our family, but we know that it will be a long journey. The new blog will be solely dedicated to our adoption story, while this blog will continue being our every day life blog. Thanks for joining us on our journey!