Every Conceivable Way: One couple's extraordinary journey to parenthood over nine years and three continents

Description

Every Conceivable Way recounts one couple's nine-year quest to become parents, while giving an inside peek into the IVF and surrogacy industries, the fertility merry-go-round, and what it's like to live for years with uncertainty. After relocating to Australia from New York, Despina Meris and her husband, Bill, settle down to baby-making. What they never expect is a string of heartbreaking unexplained miscarriages, even with the help of IVF. They turn to surrogacy - first in India, then in the Ukraine and finally in Thailand, where their baby is conceived. But more drama unfolds when, overnight, they are caught up in the Thai government crackdown on commercial surrogacy, leaving them with no way of contacting their pregnant surrogate. Every Conceivable Way, a real-life story that is stranger than fiction, asks how far you would go before you call it quits, when it seems like all the odds are stacked against you.

Despina Meris is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. Her work has been published in International Traveller, Luxury Travel and Holidays for Couples, as well as Neos Kosmos, where she was also Lifestyle Editor. Her extensive infertility research has led her to engage with online forums about domestic and international surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage support and egg donor selection. She has fifteen years' marketing experience - including at The Age - and is a graduate of New York University and the London School of Economics.