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12/03/2004
Without whom
I have a lot to say.
I'll post as often as I can, but it's going to take me a few days to get the whole story out. I don't even want to start without thanking everyone, everyone for the support and love that have surrounded us since this all began, but particularly over the last week or so.
I am uncharacteristically tongue-tied when I try to find the words to tell you what it means to me. Although I don't have time just now to answer many e-mail messages or properly thank you personally, please know that I — we — feel deeply grateful for every good wish, every encouraging story, and every one of your congratulations.
I'd thank Tertia and Danae for sharing my news with all of you when I was unable to, and those two, getupgrrl, and my friends M. and T. for keeping me from feeling so alone as I sent out 164-character dispatches from my cell phone while stranded at the hospital, but I get a little choked up when I try, so instead I will simply say, "Assholes," and leave it at that.
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complete strangers are sending you love and strength, holding you in their arms and their thoughts. love, love love to you
I've read your blog at various times for a long time now - hard not to with all of the drama, humour, madness etc to be found here. So pleased there is a happy ending or new beginning or whichever. I hope the blog won't finish now that you have reached your goal and that we can get updates of your life and times with your precious Charlie around. Congrats.
I just want to say that I am so incredibly happy for you, Paul and CHarlie, and I know that everything is different now, and by different, I mean amazing. You are amazing. Knock 'em dead.
Also, to whoever created the text message: Thank you for making my love life even more confusing.
loveT
Tamar
I am so pleased for you and Paul; please accept my most heartfelt "Congratulations!". So very glad for you that you will finally have a happy journey!
Congrats again Momma (it has such a nice ring to it, no?)
Charlie! Welcome to the world, little guy!
Julie, Paul, congratulations, I was so worried for you but so grateful that you are all doing so well.
Will continue to wish you all the best!
erica
You've been through so much and I'm so, so happy to hear that Charlie has joined us and is doing well. Looking forward to the updates and thinking of you often.
I love that name -- Charlie!!! Congratulations to all of you -- I am thinking of you all and look forward to "meeting" the boy on the blog soon!!!
Delurking to say congrats! If I had the money I'd send you the new baby box from where I work (full of yummy no-more-gestational-diabetes brownies and bread), but you'll have to settle for virtual coffeecake. And I'm kind of disappointed you didn't actually name him Batman, but I guess that is more of a girl's name. :P
I'm crying tears of joy for you, your hubby and little Charlie. All my love and congratulations for your miracle.
What I want to know is when Charlie will start posting. Hmm?
So happy, so happy for the three of you.
Julie,
Thank YOU for all of your support as well. Your comments and insight really mean a lot. You don't comment very often, but when you do, I do a little happy dance "Julie reads my blog!"
I am so very, very estactically (I can't spell) happy for you. Congratulations again.
Much love,
This is the first time that I have ever felt so persoannly invested in the life of a total stranger. I've been reading for about a year, and in that year have laughed, cried, and learned so much from your words.
With all my heart, I wish you all the happiness that you so deserve. You are a gifted writer who has affected hundreds of strangers is such a wonderful way. I expect you will have the same effect on your beautiful son as a mother. Congratulations, and I can't wait for the wonderful new blog entries about motherhood.
You've got a lot of good assholes at your back (hrm...sounds weird).
As someone who also always manages to fall on the wrong side of the odds, I'm pleased to see that when it came down to the final hand, you had a full house. Welcome, Charlie.
You know I was just thinking about you this morning...and I remember commenting about having 'sticky thoughts' for you when you had your first beta.
It's amazing to see that the long road sometimes really DOES lead to happy endings!
No Julie, thank YOU for sharing your story with us. How lucky we are, complete strangers, to be invited into a world such as yours and realize that deep down, what we all share is a magnificent gift: love. It's a special day when a woman learns the power of connecting with those who may have otherwise passed through her life unnoticed.
All my best to you and yours. Thank you for being you.
What great assholes you have in your friends.
Really, just couldn't be any happier to know that you are doing well and that your Charlie is here. Cannot wait to see a photo....
Additionally, in honor of Charlie's arrival, I have decided that I will continue to abstain from ingesting any ear wax flavored jelly beans for eternity.
We are all looking forward to forthcoming irreverent posts about poop, sleep (and lack thereof), & your heaving alabastar bosom.
Thanks again for sharing the rollercoaster ride with us & congratulations again!
Julie,
All my best to you, Paul, and little Charlie. In my heart he will always be Batman :-)
And I must chime in with others who have said that we thank you for what you have said to us so many times in the blogosphere. Yours was the first blog I found while struggling with infertility and being rather closeted about it IRL. It opened up a new mode of expression and coping for me, and for that I am eternally grateful. Being in the trenches with others takes the edge off of the bad stuff.
You go, momma lady!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! Welcome to the world little Charlie. May your heart be filled with the love of your parents who wanted you more than anything else in the world and have loved you starting years before you arrived.
Those bitches love you...as we all do.
Just put a new item on my Outlook calendar:
November 27
Charlie
Recurrence: yearly
No end date.
CONGRATULATIONS! Oh, Julie, I'm so happy for you! So so happy! This is just the greatest news ever. Congratulations!
Just had to delurk to tell you that you are one funny lady.
I wandered onto your site a while back an couldn't stop reading. You are a great writer and your amazing humor will serve you well in your journey through motherhood.
I have never held my breath for a stranger like I have in recent days. I can't tell you how glad I am that you are together and well.
Welcome Charlie!!
giddy, weeping, happy delurker just saying a big fat WELCOME to Charlie and sending much love to you and yours. WOOT!
I can breathe now.
I'm so happy, I'm sitting here at my desk clapping like a fool. I hope we get to see pictures... :o)
Thank you for sharing this journey with all of us. I for one have learned so much from you and the other ladies in this blogosphere. Some of it scares the shit out of me, but the rest makes confident that we can accomplish our baby dreams one way or another.
Oh, Julie!
I had to go to work right in the middle of waiting for your post yesterday, so Sam called me when you posted and told me all about it. We're both so happy for you!
Oh shit, Julie, the title to this entry freaked me out. From now on, would you mind titling every entry "Everything's fine! And..."? It would be good for my blood pressure.
Also, could you please confirm that Charlie is a boy? I'm afraid I don't trust you not to trick us by presenting little Charlotte by her cute androgynous nickname.
Praying that you and Charlie are soon home and healthy. I can't wait to hear your descriptions of those explosive newborn poops!
Aw, poop, I was sure it was a girl. That'll teach me to go making predictions now, won't it?.
Hope you're all chillin' and enjoying life...you guys deserve it.
Mmmwah!
I need to make better friends 'cause most of the assholes I know are just that. Can't wait for the first pictures of Charlie--I'll be refreshing obsessively.
I wanna be an asshole!
You are my favourite asshole in the whole world, and you are now the mother of all asshole. I feel proud to call you my asshole.
"Mommy, why you have tears?"
I have no words to make my 3-year old daughter understand the joy I feel for you as I read yesterday's and today's entry.
Yet another lurker, de-lurking, to send a heart overflowing with love, hope and blessings.
you're an asshole yourself. just one with pretty pretty toes.
De-lurking to shout a huge CONGRATULATIONS to you and Paul...welcome little Charlie!!
I've been reading, enjoying, and rooting for you for quite some time now...so glad for you that you are okay and that Charlie obviously has his mother's chutzpah.
I am just so, so, so happy for you, but I'm so sorry you had all the complications...Charlie, as you know, is a name near and dear to me! Excellent choice!
I'm just going to keep following you around from place to place congratulating you and Paul and showering welcoming thoughts on wee Charlie.
Gosh, congratulations and big love to your little FAMILY! Yeah, Charlie (the best name in the world). It always makes me think of Roald Dahl and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" -- that character, Charlie, was so noble and true -- and how else would your lovely child be? Noble, true, HILARIOUS, and wonderful. Congratulations again.
It is so neat to see all the support here. Lying in bed the other night, my husband asked me how Julie was doing... Hah.
Again, we are both very pleased for you and Paul. I hope you have good bras to hold those things in check.
Congratulations! And welcome to the world little Charlie!
Much love and hugs to your new family. A family! YAY!!
delurking to send you and Paul and Charlie every good wish. Have chewed fingernails to the bone and virtually destroyed keyboard obsessively refreshing Tertia's blog, so utterly overjoyed that you three came through. Please don't stop writing--you mean a lot to a lot of people. OK, now it is Tertia's turn; the world needs more good things to happen to good people.
*sniff* I'm so wonderfully happy for you. Congrats again.
I hope that some day Charlie will know just what delight literally arrived in the world on November 27, 2004. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes, gratefulness and hope in my heart, feeling renewed from reading these last two posts on your blog after a particularly shitty day in my journey. Thank you.
Huge, massive CONGRATS to you and your family!
Welcome Charlie! :)
Another mostly-lurker.
Congratulations, Mom.
It's gotta be amazing to have *you* beyond words, huh?
How about "awesome?" Not as in "Dude, that was an awesome wave." but as in "completely and utterly filled with awe." ?
Welcome to the outside, Charlie! Its cold out here, and a little bright, but you've joined a pretty amazing family, from everything I've read here.
Don't think I've commented here before, but I've read for a while. My utmost congratulations for you and your new FAMILY! I'm so glad to read a happy ending. Congrats again, and best wishes for your darling new child.
Hey, does this mean you can eat pasta now?
Bursting with happiness for you and C and P. Or maybe it's just gas. Either way, lots of love to you.
May your obsession next year be the same as another great writer...Annie Lamont in "Operating Instructions"...Charlie's neck control!
Happy for your family and as a personal note...thanks for taking such good care of my friend (I knew her first) T. Happy endings to both of your stories rivals the happiness I feel everyday since coming home from Russia.
Sandra
Welcome to the world, Charlie!!! You are, without a doubt, one of the very luckiest little boys on the planet for you have been born to two of the most amazing people on the planet. Here's hoping that all the rest of your days are filled with all the love and good wishes of the first.
CONGRATS JULIE & PAUL!!!!
Congratulations and welcome to the world Charlie! Wishing you and your family all the best.