Travailogue

Having babies is never easy, but blonde, brown-eyed Ann Barley made it even harder than most. An unmarried Government pressagent, 36-year-old Ann got a maternal glint in her eye a year ago; she had been listening to a Dutch official talk about Europe's orphans. And she had just fallen heir to a legacy. She decided to get a European baby to go with it.

Ann had herself accredited as a foreign correspondent, stocked up on baby clothes, practiced pinning a diaper or two on some small relatives, and set sail. In Holland she had her first international labor pains. The adoption laws were much too strict. She went on to Rouen. There she found a baby she wanted, but there were drawbacks. Little Patrick was colored, and anyway his father, a G.I. from Brooklyn, wanted him.

At Cannes, after weeks of searching, Ann found a pink, plump, nine-month-old orphan of the Resistance. Within a week she had named him Patrick, like the one in Rouen, and had taken him home.

Last week Ann and Patrick II arrived at Washington's National Airport to be greeted by a cloud of newsmen and diaper-service salesmen. Wildly enthusiastic about her first, Ann is once again expecting. But second babies, they say, are always easier. Patrick's prospective sister, 2 1/2 weeks old, is ready and waiting in England. Delivery: some time this summer.

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