Intended Parents: Miracles Do Happen: A True-Life Success Story of Having Children through Surrogacy

Who does a woman turn to when, more than anything in the world, she wants to have a child, but her body refuses to cooperate? Sometimes, all you need is a miracle.

In 1998, when thirty-seven-year-old Sandra Watson Rapley and her husband Craig married, both decided that they wanted children right away. Sandra expected some difficulty trying to conceive because of uterine fibroids she had removed years ago. However, she was not prepared for the turbulent—and often times disappointing—road she would have to travel to make her dream a reality. After many failed attempts at drug therapy, ovulation calculation, and in-vitro fertilization, the Rapleys finally learned the devastating truth—fibroids inside Sandra’s uterus were preventing a successful pregnancy. Following months of discussion, testing, and counseling, the miracle that the Rapleys were praying for arrived in the form of a surrogate. Their sister-in-law, Victoria, selflessly volunteered to be their embryo’s oven, and on August 29, 2001, Victoria gave birth to the Rapleys twin sons.

Intended Parents: Miracles Do Happen is the touching account of author Sandra Watson Rapley’s struggle with infertility, through the emotional highs and lows and the exciting time when her dream of having a child is finally fulfilled.

A soul-baring story of the emotional aspects of being an intended parent in a surrogate pregnancy. Fibroids, and the surgery to remove them, left Rapley infertile, with a scarred uterus and fallopian tubes. Things looked grim, writes Rapley in unadorned prose that gives her circumstance a particularly vulnerable quality, until her brother's wife, Victoria, volunteers to be the "oven" for Rapley's fertilized eggs. A valuable frontline story of interest to anyone considering intended parenthood.

-Kirkus Discoveries