Dear Reader,

On my seventeenth birthday, I got my first driver's license - and my first organ donor card.  I'd thought about it carefully, spoken to my parents, and decided that if something happened to me and I didn't need those organs anymore, well, maybe someone else did.

I didn't think about it much after that.

Fast forward twenty years. (I'm not sure where those twenty years went, but gosh, they breezed by quickly!) I was watching television, actively looking for story ideas on the "non-fiction" channels.  A show came on about children having organ transplants.  BING.  A "what-if" popped into my mind.  What if a divorced mom who'd lost her only child and donated his organs fell in love with a single dad whose kid had had an organ transplant? Wow.  I could immediately see there would be some major conflict for them to deal with.  Rachel, James, and Molly were born out of that "what if."

I spent a lot of time researching.  I spent time weeping in front of my computer as I surfed sites that honored child organ donors.  I cried some more over the kids who needed new hearts but didn't get them in time.  I rejoiced over the kids who DID, including some whose moms "talked" to me about parenting transplant kids.

But this story isn't really about organ transplant kids.  It's about the power of love to heal and overcome, about the strength of the human heart in more ways than one.  It's about summer camp, and fireflies, and rambunctious kids getting into mischief.  It's about a little girl who wants a new mom to love her and do girl-stuff with her.

As always, I'd love to hear from you.  Visit my website at www.susangable.com, e-mail me at Susan@susangable.com or snailmail at PO Box 9313, Erie, PA 16505-8313. (Send me a SASE and I'll send you a bookmark for TMP that has an organ donor card on the back.)

May all your firefly wishes come true!

Susan Gable