Thursday, December 10, 2009

Tomorrow Our Journey Begins!!!!

Tomorrow morning we head to Toronto to begin the first leg of our trip to China and in the afternoon we will board the plane for the 13-hour flight to Trinity's homeland. Tonight we are staying in a hotel just outside of the airport and as I sit here typing I can hear the planes taking off every few minutes. It is really surreal to think that in about 7 short hours we will be on one of those planes!!! I am finding it very hard to express how I am feeling and I’m not sure that it has all really set in yet but I do know that we are ready and we are in for the trip of a lifetime!!

Below is a letter that I have seen on a few other blogs and it is great information for family & friends so I thought I would edit it to suit our circumstances and post it here for all of you to read.

Now I am going to try to catch a few zzzzz’s and I will send posts as soon as I can!!


Dear Family and Friends,

As we were preparing for the arrival of Trinity, we have learned that while decorating the nursery and stocking up on baby essentials is important, even more important is the emotional health of my baby. In her short life our daughter will have gone through more changes and life altering experiences than most adults could handle. Imagine how much harder the changes will be for her. While she may not consciously remember the events, she will still experience immense loss, including feelings of grief and trauma. Currently she is very attached to her foster mom and very soon Trinity will deeply feel the loss of her in her life. She's already experienced the loss of her birthmother and will soon experience the loss of familiar and comforting family as well as the sights, smells, and language of her birth country. Her world will turn upside down. She will struggle with feeling safe and secure and she may lack the ability to trust that we will meet her needs.

We are prepared to meet her emotional needs so that she learns that we will always take care of her and we will always keep her safe. I covet your prayers for Trinity, Larry & I as she learns to trust us and pray that her little heart opens up to love me as her Mom and Larry as her Dad.

We also need your support. In order to form a strong and healthy attachment we will allow her to regress so that she has the opportunity to go through all of the emotional stages with us despite her chronological age. Although it may appear that we are spoiling her, we have been advised that it is best that we meet every need quickly and consistently. Until she has learned that we are her parents, we will need to be her primary caretakers at all times. It is essential that Larry or I always hold Trinity, feed her, and do all of the nurturing. You may wonder how long this will take, but the timeline is different for every child. We will follow her lead and trust our instincts as her parents rather than worry about what society expects.

We know many of you are going to want to meet Trinity, especially with it being the Holiday season but we ask that before you come to visit, please call to see if we are accepting company yet. We are not doing this to push any of you away or to be rude. We have all been waiting anxiously for Trinity to arrive but she has not been waiting for us. She may show her grief and confusion in many ways and we are prepared to help her through it and prove that we are a forever family and this truly is her last stop. We trust that as our family and friends you will help us to do what is best for our daughter, and I thank you in advance for your support and understanding.

Thank you all for your corporation & patience…and remember it will not be forever.

Love, Nikki & Larry

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Where Has The Time Gone?!?

Well our travel date is drawing near now and we have been very busy preparing the house and Trinity’s room for her arrival. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by and it seems like we still have a lot of things to get finished up before we go.

Originally we had decided that we would do some fundraisers to help with the costs of traveling to China but it seems as though time has slipped away from us and in less than 3 short weeks we will be boarding a flight to pick up our little Trinity. With the economy issues lately and costs of everything rising, fundraising was going to help us meet the expense of this trip and lessen our financial strain upon return home. Due to Trinity’s cleft we will be looking at many trips to our local Children’s hospital once we are home and possibly some overnight stays in close proximity to the hospital.

I have seen the ChipIn button posted on may other blogs that were doing some type of fundraising and decided to give it a try. I figured it couldn’t hurt right??

AND just as a little incentive I will be putting all the names of the people who donate $10 in a draw for some great books. For each $10 increment you donate you will earn 1 ballot for the draw. (Books pictured below)




So if you feel so inclined to lend a helping hand we would be more than grateful for your support. I will post the ChipIn button below as well as on the sidebar of my blog. If you have any issues while donating please contact me and let me know. ChipIn allows you to pay securely with your Pay*pal account. Just click the button below and follow the simple steps to donate your desired amount.




If any of you great ladies in blogland could spread the word by doing a post to direct some traffic our way we would also appreciate it too! If you post about our fundraiser on your blog leave a comment and I will also give you a ballot to win the books. Every little bit helps!

Thank you in advance to those of you who decide to “ChipIn”.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

THIS IS A TEST!!

Today I have my “Assistant Blogger” here for her first posting lesson. I know that Blogger has been blocked in China and therefore I will not be able to post updates from China myself but my friend Lisa is going to help me out with that dilemma. I will email her my updates from China and she will be updating my blog for me.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Happy Birthday To My Hubby!!

For Husband From Wife


We are having a lot of renovations done before we head to China so I have not been able to spend much time on my blog but I had to come on today to wish my wonderful husband a very Happy Birthday!!

It is so great to know that next year he will get to hear “Happy Birthday Daddy” from our little princess! It just makes my heart so happy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

TRAVEL DATES RECEIVED!!!!

Today Larry & I headed to Halifax to pick up our LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) and we finally know what our travel dates will be!

Here is Larry making it official with his signature.












Airplane


Larry, my Mom & I will be boarding a plane on December 11 to head to China and pick up Trinity and we will be heading back home on December 23!!

WOW!!

Christmas this year is going to be so crazy AND we will finally have Miss Trinity home!!!!!!!!!!!


Dear Santa


Monday, October 19, 2009

LSC IS FINALLY HERE!!!

YAY!! YAY!! YAY!! YAY!! YAY!! YAY!!

U GOT MAIL


I want to scream from the rooftops that we finally have our Letter Seeking Confirmation!!!! I am so relieved to finally know that we can get this show on the road!!



*This post and some others are going to be backdated posts as I have been a bit overwhelmed and got behind with my postings.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

SURPRISE IT’S A BABY SHOWER…NOT an Estate Auction!!

Yesterday I was the guest of honour at a surprise baby shower!! I was told I was going to an "estate auction" but NOPE...it was a BABY SHOWER!! I was so shocked!!

I had a fantastic day and feel so bless to have such wonderful friends that share our excitement and joy of our little princess Trinity’s pending arrival!!

I have so many pictures to share from this special day but I want to organize them in a slideshow and with chaos at our house right now as we prepare for major renovations I am short on time, but I do want to give you a peek.


Baby Shower: It's A Girl


~ THANK YOU ~ THANK YOU ~ THANK YOU ~ THANK YOU ~



What a wonderful group of ladies that took the time to contribute to a very special day in honour of Trinity

Larry & I will never forget your generosity!

Monday, October 05, 2009

MORE Updated Information & PICTURES!!!

Well we didn't have to wait for Sunday, our report arrived from china-babies.com on SATURDAY!!!

Here are a few of the pictures we received.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: New Pictures of Trinity
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Misty was so nice and the service was very fast. I would definitely recommend them to anyone!!

The information we received from them is absolutely priceless! I can never thank them enough for providing us with some of the missing pieces of Trinity’s life. Hearing how close she is with her foster mom and seeing her so healthy and well cared for puts our minds at ease as we wait for our travel approval.

Speaking of...

HURRY UP CONFIRMATION & TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!


(We have received word that our LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) is going to be sent from China on October 8th.)

Thursday, October 01, 2009

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we received an updated picture from Misty at china-babies.com!!!!!!!!

Click to play this Smilebox greeting: Trinity & Foster Mom
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Don't you just love that little wave!!!


We have been working with Misty to get updated information and more pictures of Trinity while we wait. She emailed me yesterday to let me know that we can expect an update report from her on Sunday!!!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Our Daughter!! (Pictures & Name!!) ... FINALLY!!

After 3 years for thinking we had picked the perfect name of our daughter…we saw her referral picture…the “name game” had just begun…



Over the last 2 MONTHS Larry & I have been deliberating...NOW we finally have her name…


So I have kept you all in suspense long enough. I must say some of you are more patient than others, lol!


So without further ado…


Larry & I are over the moon with joy and very pleased to finally introduce you to our daughter…


Trinity Elise Feng Harnish


Below is a slideshow of her pictures. I hope you enjoy it!!!