Father's Day

Thoughts on having a baby with Ben Blair, who I hardly knew at the time.

Here’s Ben Blair about two weeks into fatherhood:

He looks so young! And I was a year younger! I can hardly believe we were allowed to have a baby.

At just 24 years old, you won’t be surprised to hear that Ben was the first of his friends to become a father. But really, it was only by a few months. Our closest friends were pregnant when our first baby arrived, and welcomed their own babies not long after. It was wonderful to have close friends going through the same big life changes as we were.

Our first baby was born in 1997, and it was a life-changing year for us in lots of ways.

My father died in early January of that year, at age 52, right after I learned I was pregnant.

Shortly after the funeral, Ben and I moved to Athens, Greece (a move that had been in the works for many months), and I spent my pregnancy there, working at Ogilvy & Mather.