I love the way parents in China adorn their children with jade and string jewelry for luck. I remember a child in Guiping who had a jade necklace on that looked like he'd worn it for a long time. He was 3. I asked about it and the nanny told me that he was found as an infant wearing the necklace and they dared not take it off because the mother surely placed it on him for good luck.

When we adopted our daughter Quin, we stayed at the Wanghu Hotel in Hangzhou. Since we were foriegners, we were given a room on the 4th floor. 4=si=death. Chinese people consider 4 a very unlucky number. Some hotels don't even have a 4th floor. We were madly in love with our daughter and we were oblivious to this ominous number. Actually, the number '4' has always been my lucky number and I still consider it so. I just love these photos of kids with lucky necklaces. There were many. I wonder if any of you adoptive parents received your children with a lucky necklace or bracelet. How cool would that be?

link to RTC 2009 photo album