Sunday, September 9, 2007

100 Prayers Quilt

Friends and Family,

As you know, we are getting closer to receiving our daughter, Sophia Mei (we’re planning to call her Sophie), from China. The wait has been very long but very much worth it. We are so excited about what God has in store for us.

We appreciate so much all of your prayers for us over this entire process. But I do have another request. There's an old Chinese tradition that some of you may have heard of before, its called "bai jia bei", "100 wishes quilt", though we might want to call it “100 prayers quilt”. I’ve been thinking a lot about it over these last few months but am just feeling led to follow through with it. The way it works is that we ask friends and family to pick out a fabric of their choice (it can have some meaning to you or just be a pattern you happen to like), and mail two 5" squares of that material to us along with a scripture verse or prayer you would like to pray for our little Sophie Mei.

Once I collect all the squares, I will begin to sew a quilt for her. The reason I ask for two squares is that one of the squares will be used for the actual quilt, while the other I will use to cut a piece and place in a scrapbook along with the prayer or scripture you include. The other part of that second square might go toward making a miniature quilt for Sophie’s baby doll.

This quilt would be such a treasure to Marc and I and such a tool to use as we teach Sophie about God’s unique plan in bringing her into our family. I would love for her to have a tangible picture of all the people who were so excited about her arrival and even prayed for her before we ever met her. I know this is something she will come to treasure and likely pass on to her children and grandchildren.

I am very excited about this project. It would be great if I could start the quilt in mid-to late October. I’m sorry I didn’t leave you very much time.  Please don’t worry about the fabrics matching anything, it will be exciting how God puts it all together.

So, in a nutshell, this is what I’m asking of you:

• Mail 2 5” fabric squares (100% cotton is preferred), along with a scripture or prayer (or both) for Sophie Mei.

• Mail it to us at: 1702 Highway 155 N. McDonough, GA 30252

Thank you and God Bless,

Marc and Sherry Lewis

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

One Step Closer

Well, we are officially the next in line to receive our referral!!! Today, I received an email that Groups 239 and 240 received their referrals and we're group 241. This really doesn't change any of our estimations, its just not bad news. I did have a small glimmer of hope that we could receive a referral in October but I'm a little more sobered that that's not likely. I think the safest thing is to say we're hoping to have our referral at the beginning of December and travel to get Sophie 6-8 weeks after that. Please keep us in your prayers. Love you.