But it was new for me. And when I finally told my team about it, they were ecstatic. They didn’t say anything critical or rude. I wondered how I could have imagined that they would. In fact, they didn’t seem to care one way or the other how we got our child. Most of them didn’t seem to know much about surrogacy; to them, it was just something celebrities or wealthy people did when they wanted to have biological children, like William Stern and Baby M. If my coworkers had questions or opinions, they didn’t say anything to my face. They only cared about the extra work they’d have to do to cover my absence. They only asked when I was coming back. I’d been slightly surprised by this. I imagined that if the roles had been reversed, I would have had more questions.

Kristin asked if it was a boy or a girl. Thank goodness for Kristin. She made me feel like a normal mom-to-be. I explained that we’d wanted to know the sex, and how happy Hal had been when he’d heard it was a girl. I told her about the ultrasound (where we stood next to Cally) as the technician danced the wand around (on Cally’s belly) and we saw the fetus in the womb, a gray-and-white Rorschach image, and how we listened to the heartbeat.

I didn’t tell Kristin that my eggs were no good, or how I felt about an embryo being formed with an egg that wasn’t mine, or that I’d have no genetic connection to the child. I didn’t mention that we’d used artificial insemination or any of the other gruesome details. Just the fact that we were having a baby girl.

I found out later that Kristin was the one who tied a pink balloon to the little tree in our front yard and placed a sign there that said “It’s a Girl.” Very sweet.

“When is she due?” she’d asked.

“December.”

“So the legislature will be in recess.”

“Exactly. We got lucky there.”

“That makes our lives a lot easier for sure.”

I’d been covering the legislature for about six years, and before that I’d done health (which I was tired of), energy policy (which I hated), and education (which I loved). The legislature was only in session for half the year. Which meant that during the other half, I covered other stories, and usually, I was able to pick my own features to pitch. Of course, I had to stay in touch with my sources, the lobbyists, the agency heads, and most of all, the governor’s office.