Dear Reader,

Those of you who have been following the stories of the children brought up in foster care by the wonderful Hallie and Pop will have heard of Stephen—or Sir Stephen, as the boys called him when they teased. Well, he was tired of being teased and wanted a story of his own. I have touched on IVF in other stories, but as Stephen is a specialist in IVF this had to be a book about it.

Embryologists, who take care of the eggs and sperm, are as important as the doctors. More, according to some of them, like Francesca, especially now there is increasing use of IVM—in-vitro maturation. IVM saves women having to undergo a long series of injections in order to produce ripe eggs at the right time. With IVM, immature eggs are taken from the woman and are matured in an incubator, and as Fran was proficient at this procedure she ended up working with Steve on the lovely island of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific. The pure white sand beaches, the swaying palms and the heady scent of tropical flowers did the rest…

Meredith Webber

PS: Marty, the playboy, gets his turn to tell his story in the next book!