For those of you who have followed my journey, it's over - Baby Q is here. [i'm not posting her name in public because I have this notion that once it's posted, it's never getting removed. If you want to know her name, ask me in private and I'll tell you.]

And so the real journey has begun.

They - those unknown people who make up the body of uncontroverted wisdom - say that when you lay eyes on your child life as you know it stops. 'They' were right. I told someone, I don't have a heart anymore because it melted when I first held her. Yes, it is all I hoped and so much more.

In a way it seems so unreal. I keep waiting for someone to show up and claim their child. No, not really but there are times when it doesn't seem true.

Fortunately for her, she does not look like me. I was - to quote my grandmother - an ugly baby - homely to be exact. She on the other hand is beautiful. Not that I'm biased, but everyone says so - and no way anyone would tell me she's ugly right ? Well, at least I know she's not as ugly as I was. [i've got the pictures to prove it.]

So far, we've been pretty lucky. She sleeps a good bit which let's us sleep some too. Yeah, I'm a bit tired and I've got a million new things to do each day, but I'm functioning so it's not as bad as it could be - or will be, cause I know it can change on a dime.

The one thing that keeps amazing me is how generous people are, not just family. We have so much clothes right now, we don't need another stitch until she is 6 months old. We have diaper genies, swings, rockers - they're not the same I learned - two complete sets of different bottles, furniture, slings to carry her, towels to dry her with, blankets to wrap her in, hats, socks, shoes - yeah shoes and she's only 7 days old - the neighbor swept the driver, and weeded the patio while we were gone, I could go on but this is long enough already. In short the kindness of others has pretty much overwhelmed me.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the surrogate - Steph. She and Mike and I have stayed in touched, emailing, texting and calling at least once every day. I'll post an entry on the hospital and birth later, but in short she was amazing.

So with that high note, I'll head off for now with the promise of more to come.

Andy