Ben and I met in college, and he's the rare friend who never lets people drift off the map completely — every so often an email shows up out of nowhere just to check in. So when his name landed in my inbox last summer, I expected the usual. Instead: Ben and his husband Bryan were expecting twins, and wanted portraits with their surrogate and her family to mark it. I'll admit I tried to talk him into a local photographer instead of me driving from Newburgh, NY to Annapolis, MD. His response was, politely, that ten years was long enough to go without seeing me in person. Fair. I'm glad I went — Sandy's entire family showed up, warm and welcoming despite my best efforts to freeze everyone (sorry, Scott), and it's easy to see why Ben and Bryan chose to grow their family alongside hers.
