In honor of Jack’s fourth birthday (February 28), which we will be unable to spend with him, we have decided to create a Bai Jia Bei, or “100 Good Wishes Quilt”, for him to come home to. We will be collecting good wishes throughout the month of February … but we need your help to complete this task. We would LOVE for everyone following our adoption journey to participate in this project. If you are reading our updates, following our blog, praying for us or Jack, helping with fund raising, or simply gathering updates from others out of curiosity you are part of Jack’s story and we want you to be included in this project. The idea is simple and the directions are very easy to follow. Plus, the time commitment can be as little as hitting reply and responding to this email. Simply follow the DIRECTIONS below. I promise – this is easy!
P.S. If you know anyone else who would like to participate PLEASE pass this on!
The “100 Good Wishes Quilt” Tradition
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 friends and family to contribute a square of material with a wish for the new child. This patch of cloth is then used to make a special quilt for the child. The quilt contains the good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.
In addition, another small piece of the same fabric is placed in a special scrapbook for the child along with a written wish or prayer from the contributing friend or family member. This way the child will always know which square came from whom, and which wish or prayer was sent to him with that particular piece of fabric.
Although this is a Chinese tradition, it is a great tradition for any child to be welcomed this way. What a wonderful blessing to read the good wishes when the child is older and to know how much he was wanted and loved before his actual arrival home.
How to Participate
To be honest, we were originally going to focus on just creating a “100 Good Wishes” scrapbook for Jack, focusing on collecting good wishes and messages for him from all those following our journey to his arrival. After researching the tradition a bit more, however, we feel that we would be missing out on a great experience if we do not create an actual quilt for Jack as well. The catch is we do not want anyone to opt out of participating because of the need for fabric. That said, we have set this up to be as easy or involved as you want it to be. You can send a message with the fabric of your choice, or you can choose to just send your message and “adopt” a piece of fabric from us to include with your note. Do what works for you, but please join us in this project – it would mean so much to us to have your good wish included.
DIRECTIONS:
Submit Your Good Wish:
1. Think about what message you would like to share with Jack. This might include a poem, Bible verse, favorite quote or saying, advice, etc. You might mention good health, perseverance, compassion or display your sense of humor. Just speak from your heart.
2. Submit your message via mail, email, or facebook. If you send your message electronically, I will print it out on cardstock for inclusion in Jack’s scrapbook. If you are mailing your message to us, feel free to embellish or decorate the paper you use in any way you like.
Mail to: Deborah Shipley, 4851 Sterling Lane, Fort Meade, MD 20755
OR
Email to: dndship@comcast.net
**If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than one good wish. Perhaps your children would like to send one wish with the adults sending a separate note. No wish is unwanted!
Contribute a Quilt Square of Your Own Choosing:
1. Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. (100% cotton fabric is the best choice as it washes and wears well.)
2. Cut or purchase ¼ yard of the fabric. There is no need to cut the piece into squares, we will take care of washing, ironing and cutting on this end.
3. If you wish, include a note explaining why you chose this particular fabric.
4. Mail your fabric to us at the address above. (If you place it in a Ziploc bag, it will ensure that the fabric does not get wet while in the mail.)
5. Don’t forget to send your good wish with your fabric!
Adopt a Quilt Square:
We do not want anyone to not participate because the “crafty” part of this project slows them down or scares them off. To make things easier, we have created a way for you to “adopt” a piece of the quilt to accompany your wish. Simply submit your good wish as described above and let us know you want to “adopt”. We will provide a fabric square for the quilt, a matching square for the scrapbook and, if you wish, even mail you a piece of the adopted fabric for you to keep on your end. FYI – This fabric will be selected from fabric already passed down within our family so it is not simply random pieces from a store.
That’s it! That’s all there is to it.
I told you it was easy!
So what are you waiting for? As I stated above, we would really like for everyone following this journey to be a part of Jack’s quilt and scrapbook. There are far more than 100 people traveling this road alongside us and wouldn’t it be great to have to make a larger quilt due to an overwhelming response?! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. We are SO excited to honor Jack’s birthday in this way and can’t wait to see this quilt put together! Thank you!
If you need some inspiration...
Sample good wishes:
Sample quilts:
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