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In depth...
100 Good Wishes Quilt
To welcome a new child, a tradition exists in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei (aka 100 Good Wishes Quilt).
This is a quilt made up of fabric from friends, family and loved ones of the baby. Each person (or group) contributes a patch
of cloth and a 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. It can then be passed down from generation to generation.
We invite you to participate in this project for our little one. We hope it is the first of many Chinese traditions we can
share with you!
To participate, send a 7" X 7" square of cotton fabric and a wish. We would like to make an album with the wishes so please
write your wish on an index card (don't forget to say who it is from) with a scrap of fabric. Please state why you chose the
fabric. You don't need to buy new fabric for this quilt! Traditionally, the quilt included scraps of fabric from family and
friends clothing.
The wish is the most important part of this project! If you do not have any fabric to share, we invite you to share a wish
for our child. Examples of wishes are: Good health. Joy. Prosperity. Be are simple or elaborate as you would like.
If you would like to participate, please send (or give it to us when you see us) our wish and fabric square to us at. If you
do not have address information handy, please email me. I don't really want to post it in a public website. ;-)
Thanks for your help with this project!
*I would like to have all the fabric gathered by Christmas 2005.*
Mei Ling?!
Mei Ling is the Chinese name we have chosen for our daughter. We started using it to refer to our daughter and it stuck.
Better yet, it has a beautiful meaning in Chinese. We will be using Mei Ling as our daughter's middle name to honor her
heritage and the connection we had with her before we even met her. There is a slight chance that we may use another
Chinese name, but that would be in the rare case that her birth parents left a note with the name they gave her.
How do you say it?
Mei is like the month of May in English. Ling rhymes with ring. There are many variations of the name in Chinese that are
based on the character. So, you may meet a person whose name is Mei Ling, but it has a very different meaning.
What does Mei Ling mean?
Mei means “beautiful” and Ling means “tinkling pieces of jade”. So, together it is “beautiful
tinkling pieces of jade”. They are two characters in Chinese that come together to form one name, as is Chinese tradition.
I have also seen Mei Ling described as “beautiful chimes made out of jade.”
May we call her that?
Yes, you may refer to our daughter as Mei Ling! We find that referring to her by name makes it more personal than calling
her “the baby” or “our little one.” You are welcome to call her Mei Ling.
What about her first name?
Marty & I are still deciding on her first name. We have a long list of favorites. Some of the favorites are listed on the
home page in the white box where you can vote for your favorite. I would guess that we will not make up our minds until we
get our referral and see her face for the first time.
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