Mixed Blessings By Danielle Steel

In her 30th novel, Danielle Steel weaves a powerful tale of three couples who face decisions about having children that will test, in unexpected ways, the ties that bind them as lovers, partners, and friends.  Their lives, their goals, their feelings about families, are on the line, as the word "infertility" begins to unravel their dreams.

Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas are a California couple who seem to have it all: glamorous careers, good looks, good times, and lives full of friends and family.  After their wedding, Diana teases that she will make a baby on their honeymoon.  But long afterward, she is still not pregnant.  Diana enviously watches her sisters effortlessly conceive as she shuttles between doctors' offices and Andrew struggles to find a solution to their problem in order to hold on to his wife.  As they wait out each month with great anticipation only to be bitterly disappointed, they are forced to question just how much they are willing to go through to have a baby...and at what cost to their marriage.  Unknown to Diana, damaged and scarred by an IUD when she was in college, she must face what this means to her.  Diana and Andy reach out to surrogates, adoption, and lead a life of quiet desperation until they find the solutions that work for them.

The beaming groom at the Mason-Winwood wedding is Charlie Winwood.  Having grown up an orphan, he dreams of a house filled with children, and a happy family.  His bride, fun-seeking actress Barbie Mason, has other ideas.  She thrives on excitement and dreams not of the joys of motherhood, but of seeing her name up in lights.  Their marriage is strained, but Charlie is convinced that a baby will solve it all.  But when his plan proves unsuccessful and he discovers that he is sterile, Charlie has to rethink his deepest values -- and his marriage to a woman who shares none of his dreams.

Pilar Graham, a prominent Santa Barbara attorney, astonishes her friends by marrying Judge Brad Coleman -- after living with him for eighteen years.  Brad, in his early sixties and the father of two grown children, and Pilar, in her early forties, are happy with their comfortable life together, just the two of them.  That is until Pilar begins to wonder if someday she will regret not having a baby with Brad.  Are they crazy to begin now -- with Brad about to become a grandfather?  It will not be an easy road for Pilar and Brad as they encounter the world of high-tech medicine and the bittersweet rewards it brings them.

Through the lives of these couples, Danielle Steel shows us the mixed blessings we face as we make our modern families.  But despite hardship and heartache, she reminds us again of the triumphant spirit of love.

~My thoughts on this book~
I became a fan of Danielle Steel as a teenager sharing my Mom's reading materials.  I have not read all of her books as of yet, but I am working on it.  This book grabbed my attention because of it's focus on the difficulty some couples have in conceiving children.  I was adopted after my parents had tried unsuccessfully to have their own childres, and then three years later they had two of their own children.  Adoption is a wonderful option for adults and children.