"100 Good Wishes Quilt..." We would love to have you be a part of it!!

For those of you who haven't heard, we are hoping to put together a "100 Good Wishes Quilt" which is a Chinese Custom for a new baby.

 

Here are the directions for you to be a part of it!!!:

 

 

Let me know if you have any other questions!!

 

 

Happy 11 Month Birthday Ellie!!!

Happy 11 Month Birthday!!!!

 

Here's the boys and "Yay-Yay" (Jamee) ready to celebrate Ellie's birthday...

Ellie's 11 month birthday fell on China's "Mid-Autumn Festival," so I thought I would do something a little extra fun to celebrate and start to carry out some of the traditions of her culture.

China's "Mid-Autumn Festival" is celebrated each year and is kind of considered China's "Thanksgiving." It is celebrated over a span of 3 days and each day is filled with different things to do. One of the main traditions is to celebrate by giving "Moon Cakes." Moon cakes are a cake like pastry filled usually filled with a special red bean paste.

Now... I would love to be able to carry out all the traditions she would have if she lived in her homeland, but I thought that since I didn't grow up in a Chinese home, there would be a slim chance that I could actually make a real Moon Cake and it taste even remotely decent...besides that, most of the ingredients found in a Moon Cake, are ones that aren't found at a local grocery store!!!

I decided to try my own take on a Moon Cake using traditional favorite autumn flavors... caramel and apples... yum!!! I want Ellie to know that she was well thought of on this special day--that we will continue to celebrate many of the traditions from her culture, and that I am excited to expand my horizons and perhaps try making a real Moon Cake with her in the future.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to post my step by step instructions for my take on a "Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Cake:"

I started by chopping up an apple and adding cinnamon and a little lemon juice...

I rolled out 2 caramel candies and sandwiched the apples in between...

I rolled the caramel and apples into a ball (I saw pictures of the red bean paste rolled into a ball, so I thought I would try doing this with the caramel)

Instead of making the cake, I used a can of dinner biscuits. I placed it over the caramel ball and wrapped it up forming a large ball.

At this point, you are supposed to place your dough in a Moon press/mold, but since I didn't have one, I used a small flower candy mold. It didn't take to all the details of the flower, so I had to use a metal pointy thing (I'm not sure of the name of it...lol) to make some details.

Here they are, ready to go in the oven!!! I lightly brushed them with an egg wash so that they would have a shiny exterior like a traditional Moon Cake.

Just out of the oven...they smelled amazing!!

All put on a special plate to help celebrate China's Mid-Autumn Festival and Ellie's 11 month birthday!!

 

By the way...they tasted AMAZING!!! Definitely something I will make again!! A special thank you to Aunt Christele who helped brainstorm about the yummy way to make this moon cake!!

 

An adorable ladybug baby shower!!!

Ladies, ladies, what can I say??? You are all so amazing!!! Thank you ALL for showering Ellie with such adorable clothes and goodies!!! Thank you for your generosity and kindness!!!

I wasn't able to take pictures at the shower, but here are a few pictures that I received. A special thank you to Becci for making the adorable invitations as well as all the "crafty" things!!! Thank you to Bert for your amazing table decorations and creativity!!! And thank you to all the other amazing women that helped make such a fun, special, and beautiful day!!!

Each and every one of you has touched and blessed our lives in more ways than you realize!! A simple "thank you" is too little to describe my gratitude!!

Enjoy the pics:

Some of the "crafty" things Becci made...I especially love and cherish the special badge she made for me to wear that day with Ellie's picture. It says, "Ellie's Mom."

 

 You transformed the Sunday School room into a "ladybug" wonderland!!

Here's some of the Ladybug covered pretzels that Rebecca made...Yummy and so cute!!

Here is a picture of some of the amazing ladies who helped!!!

 

The boys were sooo excited to re-open all the gifts when I got home...we had fun laying them all out...what a blessing!!!

 

Thank you all again!!!

 

 

 

A quick update...

I will send a more detailed update with pictures, but I know many of you have been asking and praying, so I thought I would let you know some answers :-)!!

First off, we got Tim's visa!!!!!!! Such a relief!! Thank you for praying!!!

A great HUGE thank you to all you wonderful women who graciously gave and participated in such a beautiful and fun baby shower!!! Ellie is one incredibly blessed girl!!!...and she will certainly be the cutest dressed :-)!!!

Also, I hope to get a picture out of all the details ASAP, but my mother is putting together a "Bai Jia Bei," or "100 Good Wishes Quilt." In short, it is one of the Chinese customs to have friends and family contribute a patch of cloth to be part of this quilt. More details to come (hopefully tomorrow), but we would love to have all of you who have been a part of Ellie's journey to have an opportunity to contribute to this special heirloom quilt!!

God is good all the time, and we continue to be amazed and blessed by the blessings He gives!!!

We have recently been blessed by beautiful "hand me downs" for Ellie of a matching dresser, nightstand, and desk as well as a whole crib bedding set of adorable ladybugs!!!....soooo fun!!!

Lastly, if all continues to go smoothly, we expect to get our travel approval from China in the next few weeks and get to travel with a travel group leaving on Oct. 23...

We'll keep you posted, and you can look forward to some fun pictures from the baby shower as well as the details for the quilt!!

Thank you again for your faithful support and prayers!!

Please Pray!!

Looks like we will be experiencing a few more issues with Tim's visa than we thought... Please pray!! In my "humanness," I'm a little bit of a wreck, but I take strength in the God who is far bigger than all of this!!...Not sure how people live life apart from God!!

I'll keep you posted!!

As a praise, we are now through the US side of things with our immigration paperwork and are now officially waiting for our Article 5... That should come in 2 weeks, and then we are on to our wait for the Travel approval...

We're one step closer sweet Ellie Mei!!! We can't wait to hold you in our arms soon!!

Baby Shower

Hopefully all of you who live in the area received an invitation to Ellie's baby shower!!! If you did not, PLEASE let me know!!! It was sent via email from my friend Becci (you might not have recognized the sender)...check your "junk email" too as sometimes group emails end up in there :-)!!!

For more details, please message me... :-)!!