A little more.....

of our story! Included is a copy of the Christmas letter that we had sent with our cards, telling a little of the beginning of our journey and an explanation of the "100 Good Wishes" quilt. There's also a photo of the fabric squares we have been given so far!! We really have been blessed so far as we haven't experienced any "bumps in the road"! (except for Fred being singled out at the FBI's office!) He had just gotten a new drivers license and they didn't like the way his name had been abbreviated and we hadn't received our passports yet for identification! They made us wait in a little roped off area for the "Manager of the Department of Homeland Security". Are you kidding me?!! I was in tears! Eventually she came out of HER office and cleared him. (I think she was afraid of what I may be capable of at that point!)
We were recently notified that the China Civil Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has finished reviewing our paperwork (dossier) and they have no further questions for us. Now we will move on to the "matching room" where all of the back log is taking place!!
The Christmas Letter:

Happy Holidays!




Dear Family & Friends,
As most of you know, in January of this year, we decided to add to our family through adoption. After much research, days and nights of document gathering, a Home Study with a social worker sent from above (!), lots of fingerprints and background checks, etc., our dossier was sent to China at the end of July. We were officially logged in at the China Civil Affairs office on Aug. 24th.
Lately, the referral of the baby that has been matched to you had been taking six months from your LID (log in date). At the time that our referral was wired, China was inundated with dossiers (which of course is a good thing!), which delayed us about a month.
We had hoped to receive our referral at the end of Feb. and travel to China for our two weeks to bring our daughter home around the end of April. As of last week, the CCA notified our agency and informed them that referral times will now be more like 8-9 months. This was very unwelcome news, but we’ll just have to wait and see!
When the time comes, we will update everyone with the information and pictures that we receive on a website that we will also be posting on while we are on our journey in China! You will be able to log on and read about our daily experience and check out some photos of our site seeing and new little wonder!
We have chosen the first name “Alena”, which means “pretty” in Greek for our daughter and we will keep part of her given name in China as her middle name. Sophia can’t wait to be a big sister and keeps her in mind when we are shopping!! We will be busy over the winter with preparing a new room for Soph upstairs and then repainting and decorating her existing bedroom for the nursery. That, along with the holidays, school and activities should help our wait move along! We also have a goal to create a “100 Good Wishes” quilt for Alena. It will be such a special gift from so many people and will last a lifetime or more!!
This is the meaning:
Traditionally in some parts of Northern China, when a baby was born, family & friends of the child would donate fabric scraps from old clothing to the child's mother. She would make a quilt for the child from the scraps. It is said that the luck and energy of the people who wore these clothes surrounds the child when she is wrapped in the quilt.This is the tradition upon which the 100 Good Wishes Quilt is modeled.This is the tradition now:What is a 100 Good Wishes 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 friends and family to contribute two patches of the same cloth (7X7) with a wish for the baby. The first patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth can go into the Life Book with the wish for the child. The quilt 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. We found out about 100 wishes quilts through others who adopted a daughter from China. It is a tradition to greet the new baby with a 100 Good Wishes Quilt. Although this is a Chinese tradition, it is a great tradition for any child to be welcomed this way. What a treat to read the good wishes when the child is older to know how much they were wanted!
If you find it in your heart to contribute, you’d be giving us and our baby girl “Alena” just a little bit of connectivity with the world around her. You would need to send two 7X7 swatches of the same cloth along with a wish for the baby!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I will post pictures of the quilt when it is completed on the website that we will be using when we travel!!
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy year to come!
Sincerely,
Fred, Jenni & Sophia