THE QUILT IS DONE !!!!!!!

WOW! That is the best word to describe Paul's 100 Good Wishes quilt. It is so beautiful and will be cherished forever. When I look at this quilt I see how blessed our family is to have so many friends and family members who care about us. It won't take Paul long to figure out that he is loved and cared about by many people. The squares came from all over the country. They came from new and old friends. Many came from families that we traveled with when we adopted Audrey. Some squares came from a couple of my dental hygiene patients and even from complete strangers.

For those of you who have started to follow our journey a little later in the game, I'll fill you in on how the quilt began. A friend of a friend, Sally, was invited to participate in someone elses "Good Wish" quilt. She brought this ivitation into the office that I work at and asked me if I had ever heard of it. I said that I had but knew that it was something that I could never do so I never even considered doing one. She called me the next day to offer to sew one together for me if I collected all of the squares. (You should all know that Sally and her husband Steve have 2 teenagers adopted from South Korea.) You usually create the quilt before you bring the child home but she said if we're going to do one for Paul that she might as well do one for Audrey. I was so suprised that she offered to do this for us. So at the end of May I set out to collect 100 squares for each quilt. The first 75 came pretty easy but I did have to harass a few people to get the last 20 or so. We (me, Ted and the kids) put in 5 squares. We used rooster fabric for the 4 corners since Paul was born in the Chinese the year of the rooster. Then I had the center square embroidered with Paul's Chinese name, his English name and his date of birth. Sally sewed the squares together then she gave me the top. Natalie and I pinned the top, the batting and the backing together. Then Delores (my MIL), Natalie and I tied it together with embroidry floss. Last, I gave it back to Sally and she bound it all together with a soft blue flannel material. I think it is a work of art made out of love. During all of this, I have been busy putting the "good wishes" into a scrapbook. You guys really out did yourselves with these wishes. Every single one is special. Thank you so much!!!!! As of now I plan to hang the quilt on the wall next to Paul's crib.