Hi there. I'm Andrea and on July 18th 2014 at 7.15pm, I gave birth to my beautiful 1st born, Amber.
She was born sleeping as lost her fight to Turner Syndrome at 19 weeks inutero. She was a teeny 100 grams and 10cm long, and I did not get to spend much time with her due to her being so small and fragile.
My grief and my husbands grief was unbearable. We didn't know what to do with ourselves for a few weeks. And, because all of our dreams and hopes we had for Amber were now broken, it made things harder as we didn't have many memories to create of her.
Over the next few months, I threw myself into creating memories for our beautiful first born. This ranged from jewellery to shoes, to pictures and to toys. Anything I could think of to frantically create happy memories of our Angel.
One of my items that really stood out, was a doll I got made to Amber's weight and height. This became a huge part of helping myself and my hubby work through our grief, it provided and still provides us with a comfort we never knew existed. This doll was carried around everywhere for a while and still does at times of need.
This inspired me to look into items that I could make to provide to other parents. I found several weighted items overseas and one place provided weighted hearts. I thought this was a fantastic idea and a little easier than making dolls or blankets, so I contacted them for advice and gain their support to establish this initiative in New Zealand.
After learning of my friend CJ's shared experience, together, Huggable Hearts was founded in 2015. We became united and launched this project to, in some small way, help other parents of angel babies with their loss.
Huggable Hearts has been running since February 2015 and continues to grow. We have lovingly crafted more than 3000 special Hearts, comforting families throughout Aotearoa.
CJ has since decided to be a full time mummy to her rainbow baby, and Huggable Hearts is now managed by myself – with the help of my husband Nathan, my Mum and Dad - Christine and Brian and my sister Michelle. We work full time at other jobs so all of our spare time goes into the making of our hearts. We are lucky enough to also have Ida and Sandra, our two main sewers, plus a small team of volunteers who help when they can.
She was born sleeping as lost her fight to Turner Syndrome at 19 weeks inutero. She was a teeny 100 grams and 10cm long, and I did not get to spend much time with her due to her being so small and fragile.
My grief and my husbands grief was unbearable. We didn't know what to do with ourselves for a few weeks. And, because all of our dreams and hopes we had for Amber were now broken, it made things harder as we didn't have many memories to create of her.
Over the next few months, I threw myself into creating memories for our beautiful first born. This ranged from jewellery to shoes, to pictures and to toys. Anything I could think of to frantically create happy memories of our Angel.
One of my items that really stood out, was a doll I got made to Amber's weight and height. This became a huge part of helping myself and my hubby work through our grief, it provided and still provides us with a comfort we never knew existed. This doll was carried around everywhere for a while and still does at times of need.
This inspired me to look into items that I could make to provide to other parents. I found several weighted items overseas and one place provided weighted hearts. I thought this was a fantastic idea and a little easier than making dolls or blankets, so I contacted them for advice and gain their support to establish this initiative in New Zealand.
After learning of my friend CJ's shared experience, together, Huggable Hearts was founded in 2015. We became united and launched this project to, in some small way, help other parents of angel babies with their loss.
Huggable Hearts has been running since February 2015 and continues to grow. We have lovingly crafted more than 3000 special Hearts, comforting families throughout Aotearoa.
CJ has since decided to be a full time mummy to her rainbow baby, and Huggable Hearts is now managed by myself – with the help of my husband Nathan, my Mum and Dad - Christine and Brian and my sister Michelle. We work full time at other jobs so all of our spare time goes into the making of our hearts. We are lucky enough to also have Ida and Sandra, our two main sewers, plus a small team of volunteers who help when they can.
Huggable HeartsWe aim to get our Hearts to parents and families within the first 4-6 weeks of their angel gaining their wings, to have something special at home to cuddle and hold as they need.
We hope our Hearts help to bring comfort to these families as they are a tangible reminder of their gorgeous angel. We don't charge for our Hearts as we believe this is our special way of paying it forward for the wonderful support we received as parents of angels ourselves. |
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