Dad Spelled Backward

Can you die from having too much sex? That's the question Dr. Michael King, a well-respected dentist in New York, asks in Dad Spelled Backward: A Journey Through the Maze of Love, Marriage, and Adoption. Mike had never thought much about getting married and becoming a father, but all that changed when, in his fifties, he met Gabriella, his lovely (and much younger) French wife. Together they decide to try to become parents, and they do all they can to make a baby-to the point where Mike wonders if one can die from too much sex.

This candid account by a husband and father is insightful, moving, fiercely funny-and ultimately a testament to unconditional love. Mike tells his story of how, wanting to make his wife happy after realizing that they couldn't successfully conceive a child, he reluctantly agrees to move on to the next phase of potential parenthood-adoption.

Unfortunately, domestic adoption is often a long, costly process that takes couples on a roller-coaster ride from hope to despair and back again. Mike recounts how he and Gabriella were connected with one pregnant woman after another until they were finally given a baby, only to have to give the infant back when the birth mom changed her mind. This left them so emotionally drained that they had to decide whether the price of becoming parents was too high and whether it was time to give up.

Such heartbreak might have driven other couples apart, but Gabriella and Mike only became closer; their love for one another grew even stronger, and they did at last get to be parents. "I hope this book inspires people who want to, or are considering whether to, become parents," Mike says. "We all face obstacles in life, but if love prevails, it's worth the struggle."

You'll laugh and cry with Gaby and Mike in this heartwarming story of one man's journey into happy marriage and fatherhood.