Friday, September 15, 2006

100 Good Wishes (Blessings) Quilt

100 Good Wishes Quilt
Can you Spare a Square ?
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 (Blessings) Quilt. It is a custom to invite friends and family to contribute a square patch of cloth with a wish for the baby. The main 8x8 patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other small part of the cloth goes into a creative memory notebook with the wish (blessings) for the child. The quilt contains the thoughts, prayers, 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.

Would you like to send us a square?? Here’s how: Find a good quality, 100% cotton piece of cloth that you like. Prewash the fabric in the washer, cold water. Cut it into a square, 8×8 inches. This is the square that goes into the quilt. Next, cut a 1×1 inch square and paste it to a card (can be an index card, piece of card stock, etc.). Beside the 1×1 square, write a wish…this can be as simple as a few words of good wishes, lines from a song, poem, bible verse, etc. Include your information…name, how you found us, and where you’re from. This way, we can have a record of which quilt square goes with what wish and how many places our wishes came from!


If you would like to contribute to Hannah’s quilt, please email us at gary_and_terri@hotmail.com

For more information on the 100 Wishes (Blessings) Quilts see http://www.originalquilts.com/100_good_wishes_quilts.htm

Today's Verse
We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16/NIVClick Here To Subscribe! Heartlight®

Links
Answers in Genesis

Saturday, September 09, 2006

10 Reasons Why Adoption is Better than Pregnancy

10 Reasons Why Adoption is Better than Pregnancy

Don't fret if you are following the path of adoption after the road of infertility;
here are 10 reasons that adoption is better than pregnancy - feel free to comment on these or add more reasons!Here it goes.....

10. No morning sickness
9. No stretch marks
8. No one can give you a hard time for not breast feeding
7. No need to spend all that money on maternity clothes only to wear them for a few months
6. No weight gain (that is as long as you don't sit around eating chocolate & moping about the long wait - stay active!)
5. My daughter won't have my "Thornton Thunder Thighs," butt, or anything else that's a curse! (she might even have a chance at being "thin" ~~~~~~)
4. No need for a tummy tuck when it's over
3. You don't have to slow down..........it's actually better to stay busy and active. (we've really started LOSING weight)
2. Your shoes still fitand best of all...
1. You will still get the child God made for you!!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Update -- Hello again

I just wanted everyone to know that we are in the waiting game for a LID (log in date) at the CCA (government adoption agency in China). Our papers were received on 8-14-2006, so we hope that the LID will be around 8-28-2006. We won't know for sure though until we have that letter in our hands (about a month). We can use this LID to track what is going on with our adoption on the CCA website (http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp). It can be found under the documents processing section in the lower right hand corner.

After the LID comes reviewing our application. This is an even longer wait, but that is what the website specifically talks about under the documents processing section. Currently they have finished reviewing all douments with a LID of 11/30/2005. Yes, that means it will probably be about 9 more months until we are in the matching room.

Once the review is finished we go to the matching room to finally be matched with our child. I have heard rumors that they match you based on a passport photo you submit (I certainly hope not!) or the likes you have written on your application. Who really knows?

After the matching room, they send us our referral and we decided whether or not to accept her.

Then it's placement time!!!! Yippee!!! This is finally where we get to go over and hold her for the first time. Yes, I'm excited................but patient in the wait because I have SOO much to do in the mean time.

Currently the CCA has finished placing all children up through 7/22/2005. That's a little more than a year (about 12 mo. 3 weeks) in front of our paperwork. So, we expect to probably get to meet her sometime next September or October unless things speed up.

We would like her to be as young as possible and have found others that have actually gotten to take them home at 8 months (we thought that she'd have to be that old at referral). I'm very exicted about that. With this in mind, I think that she'll probably be born around February or March. We are praying for her mom and dad right now as they are making these tough decisions and their health.

Her dates seem to fall very close to her aunt Christina (due in Jan. or Feb.), her cousin Jessica (due in Jan. or Feb.), and her other aunt Sherri (due in Jan. or Feb.). So, she could POTENTIALLY have 3 other children very close to her age to play with..................if we ever get to leave TX again to see people (lol).

That's it for now. I just wanted to keep you up to date. As I said before, I'm not stressed out about not having a LID yet or anything like some others I know. I know that I'll have one and it will hopefully be a time close to or before now. By the time I find out it won't matter when the date is at all. I'm just starting to keep posted with the CCA stuff, but I won't even watch it really close until sometime next summer.

Thanks,

Terri for the Casebier's

Prayer requests:

1. For her parents and their decisions/health

2. For the CCA in their placement of all these little children (there are many others, young and old, special needs, and non-special needs) into the correct homes.

3. For Gary and I to work hard on our marriage and parenting skills during the coming months to be as prepared as possible for our addition.

4. For Gary to find a job........as he still has not been placed in the school system for this year.