Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Here’s a Story That Will Warm Your Heart

Here’s a Story That Will Warm Your Heart

by | 60 Comments

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There’s so much ugly going on in the world around us I thought I would share a story that would make you all smile. One of my best friends from undergrad and his wife (I was really good friends with both) had a terrible time getting pregnant, and had basically all but given up. Then, a mutual friend, someone who had been friends with her her entire lifetime (and a friend of all of ours from undergrad), offered to try to carry a baby for them. So they planted a fertilized egg, and she is about to give birth by c-section in April.

That, in and of itself, is a wonderful tale. Those of you who have carried a baby to term can attest to what a level of friendship that must take. But here is where it gets better.

I just got off the phone with my buddy, and now his wife is pregnant with a baby girl and is 17 weeks along. So they went from no kids to two within the course of a few months. The boy will be born from the surrogate mother/friend in a few weeks, and then a little sister will come along a few months later. They are so excited they can barely contain it.

Isn’t that some of the sweetest stuff you’ve ever heard in your entire life?

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  3. 3.

    Loneoak

    That is pretty sweet. Do they want a third? Cuz I’ve got an extra-screamy one and they sound like suckers.

  4. 4.

    Walker

    Virtual twins. There are support groups online for this.

    My sister had a similar problem and then spent years trying to adopt. Right when the adoption went through, she got pregnant.

  5. 5.

    flounder

    Congrats to them. I mostly lurk. My wife and I tried for a long time to have children, and couldn’t. We used my bro who pretty much looks and acts like me to sperm donor. Having a boy in a couple months. I am f-ing beaming.

  8. 8.

    Jibeaux

    There are so many great stories about that. I think the sperm must relax or something when the pressure’s off, and the liberated little buggers swim like mad. Congratulations! Buy them diapers!

  12. 12.

    Comrade Mary

    I think the sperm must relax or something when the pressure’s off, and the liberated little buggers swim like mad. Congratulations! Buy them diapers!

    Doesn’t diapering sperm defeat their whole purpose?

    Great story, John. They’re going to have their hands full!

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    It goes by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I brought my baby home, and now she is in college. I hope they can enjoy every sleepless moment.

  15. 15.

    scav

    @Comrade Mary:

    Doesn’t diapering sperm defeat their whole purpose?

    So long as they’re in cloth, they can use the diaper to catch the egg like a net and the pin to burst their way through. McGuyver sperm!

  17. 17.

    kmeyerthelurker

    Catholic twins! Reminds me of my own parents: the had no luck for years, then adopted my older brother. Then all of a sudden something biological clicks, and me & my sister arrive shortly after. Must be something psychological. Hate the site revamp BTW. Keeps switching between formats.

  18. 18.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jibeaux:

    Congratulations! Buy them diapers earplugs!

    Corrected for accuracy. My youngest sibs were multiples, and I love them dearly, but the little guys will send each other into a chain reaction of wailing….

  19. 19.

    Crusty Dem

    I’m so disappointed, I thought JSF was being sincere.

    Ben Shapiro is dead sexy.

    You know who’s really sharp? Mark Steyn.

    Tbogg just isn’t funny.

    I wish Ross Douthat would present a pro-catholic position.

    And this concludes today’s editions of “thoughts no one has ever had”.

  21. 21.

    Jebediah

    That is nice. Thanks for the brief respite from all the shitty shittiness.

    When we were having fertility issues, my sister-in-law offered to do that for us. She had had a very difficult pregnancy with my niece, so I asked why she would go through that again. She said that Hannah was well worth it, and she wanted us to have that joy too. It’s nice to be reminded that there really are lots of non-assholes walking around.

  26. 26.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Blessed by the Noodly Appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. May the family enjoy great togetherness forever!

  29. 29.

    Fwiffo

    I have a co-worker with a 4 year old who found out a few months ago that they his wife was expecting again. He met the news with guarded enthusiasm. More recently he got a call at work – turns out it’s twins.

    He was sobbing so hard we had to send him home early.

  31. 31.

    Feminazis of Balloon Juice - not BoB

    Those things should be aborted right away, they may become Rush listeners!

  32. 32.

    muddy

    I was sad to be born too late to carry someone else’s baby, I could have made a career out of it. I loved being pregnant, and didn’t have a single bad side effect. When my son was little I wished I could be a surrogate so I could afford to stay at home with my own guy. They were just barely inventing that back then.

    My mother said how horrible it would be for my son when he didn’t get the baby in the end. I said I would explain it to him as high end babysitting, I think it would have been really cool.

  39. 39.

    JoyfulA

    Friends tried everything to conceive, for years and years. Finally, sadly, they gave up. Within weeks, a baby’s on the way. After that baby, they had another one, exactly one year later. Amazing.

  42. 42.

    Gus

    Isn’t that some of the sweetest stuff you’ve ever heard in your entire life?

    It is, but I feel for the parents. They’ll just be getting into a routine with the boy (and starting to get a real night’s sleep) and the girl will come along and throw it all off. Good for them, though.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    So some guy basically knocked up the surrogate and the original wife, right?
    The guy in question is less than motility superior.

  45. 45.

    Gus

    @flounder: Congratulations! All my friends told me fatherhood was the best thing that ever happened to them. Two weeks after my little guy was born, I was ready to trade him in on another dog. A friend gave me the best advice I’ve had, and I pass it along to every expectant father I know: make it through six weeks. It sounds easy, but those first sleep deprived six weeks with the baby making constant demands are brutal. Six weeks and two days after my boy was born he slept through the night. It’s been a gas ever since. He’s nine months now, and every new stage is better than the last.

  47. 47.

    honus

    @rikyrah: and, the children are wanted and will be cherished.

    This whole reproduction thing is funny and mystical. True story: I grew up in a small town (about 5000) and three close friends that i grew up with, went through grade school and high school, resembled and acted more like their parents than most I can remember. I didn’t find out until I was in my 40s that they were adopted. I still can’t really believe it.
    Loved and cherished indeed.

  48. 48.

    PurpleGirl

    Congratulations to your friends, JC.

    Two cousins of mine had trouble conceiving. Both women tried for several years and couldn’t. They both adopted a child (boys from Korea) and within months both were pregnant (with girls).

  50. 50.

    honus

    Feeding and changing the babies in the night was always a joy. Even if I was dead tired, I couldn’t get enough of them. Those are some of the best memories of my life.
    Of course it helped that our oldest was born in 1990 when ESPN started broadcasting all those baseball games from the west coast. I could always check out how the Dodgers or Giants were doing during those 3am feedings. I almost became a real Padres fan, and Tony Gwynn is still one of my favorite players of all time.

  51. 51.

    ruemara

    Well, I’m unabashedly grateful and happy they’ve been blessed so. I don’t know about 6 weeks or what have you, but I know that they will survive. And thrive. May they have uneventful except for the usual, child rearing stories.

  52. 52.

    Emdee

    As Tebow is my witness, by the middle of the first paragraph, I just knew this story was going to end with them having kittens.

    I blame too much Tunch.

  53. 53.

    Jason

    I’m quite friendly with much of the staff of a local fertility clinic, and they tell me that this sort of thing happens more than you might think. Couple will try seemingly for ages to get pregnant via artificial/assisted means, and just after they’ve finally given up or availed themselves of another option – blammo. Along comes a naturally-conceived baby. Weird.

  54. 54.

    jill

    Irish twins! Yay for them…I had a pair of those myself. Also known as Pain and Panic.

    Phenergan for the babies, or some mild type of barbituate for the parents, and all will be fine.

  55. 55.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @PurpleGirl:
    Adoption –> childbirth.

    I hear this story a lot. Happened to two friends of ours, as a matter of fact. Not to us, we ended up adopting two.

    Besides the joy of raising two boys, adopting from South America meant I got to experience altitude sickness, chew coca leaves, see the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, eat interesting food, tell a joke to a cab driver in Spanish, and get hooked on pisco sours.

  56. 56.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Gus: Best advice I got from my best friend who was a father before the rest of us:

    Everything washes off.

  59. 59.

    gvg

    great story. Again I’ll add it happens more than people expect. My grandmother was adopted after her parents had been married with no results for years. Great grands had 3 naturally right after. That was in the great depression. In the 70’s an Aunt and uncle on the other side of the family were unable to conceive for 7 years, adopted and then conceived 2 naturally. Followed up by adopting another when the nest was empty and then adopting a grown immigrant child that they had sponsored in a Vietnamese orphanage for years when she managed to immigrate and came to visit them.

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