“About three months after our first meeting, we were all having dinner at some fancy restaurant in town. The two of them had a flurry of calls. From time to time they would get up from the table and go outside to talk. One would go, then come back, then the other got a call, and so on and so on. Then they started to talk about these adoptive parents and how badly they wanted a baby. One thing led to another, and Newsom pulled out this yellow sheet of paper with a list of names. There had to be at least fifty names on the list. Next to each name was a sum of money. It was a lot of money. She said that was how much a surrogate got if she would agree to have a baby for a particular set of parents. She kind of offhandedly asked if I was interested. At first I said no. Then I thought about how much easier my life would be with that money. I’d been working two jobs, trying to study, getting by on little or no sleep. The bills kept piling up. They let it drop right there, and they both acted like they were disappointed in me. Dinner was over, and we went our separate ways.

“A few days later, Newsom called and asked if I had thought about the offer and did I want to change my mind. I said that I did. Then things kicked into high gear, and we were off and running. I met the people who would adopt the baby. They were a nice young couple, and I actually felt good about what I had agreed to do. They paid for everything, made sure I got all the prenatal vitamins, saw an ob-gyn once a month. They even took me to the doctor. They gave me a food allowance to make sure I ate properly. They bought me maternity clothes. They gave me presents. When I had the baby, they filled my room with flowers. They kissed and hugged me. And then it was over. I went back to my life, a little sad, but I was happy I had done something nice for the Evanses. I thought that was the end of it, but it wasn’t.