Photo Sunday!

First outing as a single mom--New Year's Eve, 1997, at my friend Judy's house. Maisie was 5 hrs past her bedtime, but matching beautifully in Gap quality, marking the beginning of a trend in which my children dress better than I.

It was an uncomfortable evening, though; my friends--work friends; the only kind I had in Baltimore, workaholic that I was then--grinned a lot, cooed over the baby, and assiduously avoided a whole landscape of conversations that could lead to anything remotely touching on what on earth I was going to do next, earning $28K and a single mother. These were educated urban white people; we didn't go and have babies on our own.

I quit the nonprofit and took a job I never cared for at three times the salary, and having never known me any other way, the new crowd embraced me and the girl without batting an eye. Three years later, when I took leave to go to India and pick up Liam, they sent me a letter that still makes me weep when I look at it--so packed with love and support and sincerity.

I get Christmas cards still from the for-profit crowd. When I run into the nonprofit one at the annual book fair, they run out of words after "You look great!" Makes me so sad, really; I loved them.