5881

Dear Talisker :

Woot grats!!! (sorry I play too much WoW)

Still, a most excellent story!

Also a dad…it is a very gratifying job.

5882

Great story, and just in time for Father’s Day! Major congrats to you and your family. Be sure to post here between bottles and diaper changes :)

I hear you on the “so when are you having babies??” questions. I’m not even close to trying but know it’ll be a long and maybe impossible journey. People started asking last year (before we even lived together, wtf?) and there’ve been times when I’ve gone home and cried. Seriously, people. Think before asking. It’s not always a harmless question and your curiosity can hurt.

5883

A guy who used to post on another forum I’m on has been arrested for making death threats against his old school on /b/. There was a picture of one guy holding a sign with the death threat, and another guy with a mask on. The local papers have all run the story, including the BBC. What’s interesting is that from the picture it’s obviously not him. It looks kind of like him, they have the same face shape and hair, but the rest of his features are all different. He was identified by an old teacher of his who hasn’t seen him in three years. What makes it even more interesting was that the guy who was arrested dropped out because he was depressed and was in hospital getting treatment for a good while. The school knew this, so when presented with a similar picture, they put two and two together, similar looking guy + mental health problems = he’s the guy. The police have released him but aren’t responding to any of his calls, his solicitors calls and are completely ignoring them, while simultaneously releasing press statements to say they acted appropriately. It’s complete bullshit. If you look at the pictures it’s obviously not him.

5884

That’ll teach him to post on /b/.

5885

Jebus Talisker, talk about having a huge life changer jump at you unexpectedly. I’m assuming you guys had a nursery ready? Do you have formula and diapers on hand? Pacifiers? Wipes? I was prepped and provisioned and those first few days were hectic. I can’t imagine a surprise baby.

Congrats, and don’t be afraid to look for advice. QT3 has a lot of parents and we all know how stressful that adjustment to the first kid can be. If you find yourself wondering about anything, make a thread :)

5886

Well that qualifies as interesting. Awesome, Talisker.

5887

That is an amazing story, and congrats to all three of you!

5888

Talisker, I’m with everyone else, and teared up quite a bit reading that. I’m so happy for you and Mrs. Talisker. Congratulations!

5889

Wow, absolutely incredible news! Congratulations, Talisker & family!

5890

Happy early Father’s Day, Talisker! Congrats to you and your family!

5891

We literally didn’t have a single thing when we left the house. The hospital gave us a couple days worth of supplies when we left; between friends and family (activate baby network – NOW!), we had a borrowed pack-and-play (portable combo crib/playpen/changingtable), more formula, diapers, bottles, clothes, and stuff within an hour of arriving home.

So, we haven’t had to go to the store yet – but, there’s some basic stuff we’ll be heading out to get before too long. We’ll probably hold off on the serious hardware (crib, changing table, nursery furniture, etc) until we get our permanent placement in a few weeks – until then, there’s the possibility that the birth mother will change her mind and we’d have 24 hours to give the baby back. (we have currently have a temporary placement; as soon as the court date is scheduled, hopefully in 2-3 weeks, there will be a pair of hearings for the birthmother to reliquish rights and assign a permanent placement to us; six months after that, we can finalize the irrevocable legal adoption, hopefully by Dec. 31 'cause holy tax credits batman!)

5892

Good, glad you have supplies!

Don’t buy a crib, btw, a pack and play is better. Being able to take baby’s comfortable and accustomed sleeping environment on the road with you is priceless. Don’t mess that up by switching to a clunky crib.

Also, do NOT miss your opportunity to lie down on the couch and read a book with a sleeping baby on your chest Make sure your wife takes pictures.

5893

Hold up, this is all totally ironic, right Talisker?

Just kidding, glad the godawful-sounding adoption system finally came through for you after 3 years. Hope you’ve already discussed with your wife the possibility of the birth mother reneging. Don’t want to set yourselves up for total breakdown.

5894

This thread is awesome. Throw another Congrats on there, Talisker. I’m very happy for you two!

5895

This is really interesting. I was wondering if you were one of those fathers who just goes to the baby supplies store and tells the nice lady “I’ll have one of everything”. Well, there’s a bunch of parents here (new and old) a midwife and a professional nanny, so feel free to start an advice thread.

The last bit with the adoption not being final yet must be scary. But I guess statistically mothers don’t change their minds very often (it’s only on US court room dramas it happens all the time).

My own not as awesome (by far) news is that I managed to sell my car for a decent price. Listed it almost two months ago, when I ordered our new lease and… nothing. Lowered the price, tried an auction (was offered $4500 not counting auction fee for a car listed at $8300 and said no). The guy we’re buying from offered to find us a deal, but said that we should be happy with anything above $3000 from a dealer, so I listed the car at $6000 and a guy calls.

After looking the car over and hemming and hawing he said he’d rather go look at one in black in Jutland (350 miles away). I ask him what saving that trip will be worth and he says he can’t offer my price and won’t go any higher than $6500… In shock I realize it’s a coincidence he picked this day to call and he haven’t seen my new price, so I accept and seal the deal.
Money’s in the bank now and my new car, which was supposed to be here now, is delayed a few weeks.

Complains on Facebook that I’m not allowed to rent a Mini Cooper in Sweden for the weekend ($83 when the same car here will cost me $350) and a friend calls me up from her business trip in New York and offers me her bigass BMW for the weekend…

5896

The ratio of time spent reading to time spent snoring would probably be about 1:100 right now :)

Believe me, they make it very, very clear that’s a possibility (and there are a couple forms our agency has you sign making it explicit that you understand that risk). Given what they’ve told us of how things went down, and the birthmother’s actions and attitude, it sounds pretty unlikely – but, you never know. We’ll definitely breathe a HUGE sigh of relief after the initial court day though (once rights are formally terminated/relinquished).

Given that we were probably, what, 10-15 minutes away from you (Garden City), if I’d had a bit more notice, I could’ve hit New Holland and grabbed a few sixpacks to bring your way :)

5897

Babies more important than beer.

I can’t believe I just said that.

5898

Lies!

5899

Congratulations, Talisker!

5900

Final baby post in this thread: if anyone wants the URL for our new baby blog, shoot me a PM. There’s more pictures and stuff there (…and the same post I made above, with most of the swears edited out).

And thanks again for all the congratulations etc – the past couple of days have been absolutely unreal :)