TWO Evening Star-crossed lovers are today celebrating a new addition to a fairy-tale story that could rival any Shakesperian romance.Lorraine and Jeremy Barber, who met through the newspaper's dating pages, have finally welcomed home their “honeymoon” baby boy after a touch-and-go emergency birth.

TWO Evening Star-crossed lovers are today celebrating a new addition to a fairy-tale story that could rival any Shakesperian romance.

Lorraine and Jeremy Barber, who met through the newspaper's dating pages, have finally welcomed home their “honeymoon” baby boy after a touch-and-go emergency birth.

Mrs Barber , 32, was rushed to the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston seven weeks early for an emergency caesarean after developing pre-eclampsia, a condition that can be fatal to mother and baby.

Their son weighed just under four pounds and was taken to the neonatal unit with breathing problems, where he spent the next four weeks.

Mrs Barber, said: “It was so difficult going into hospital pregnant, giving birth and coming home without him.

“Many nights Jeremy and I shed a tear as we had to leave him, but we were told we could visit him 24 hours a day. It is emotionally and physically draining.”

On March 9, the baby the couple had always dreamed of was allowed home to much excitement and relief as well as the odd sleepless night.

And his name, John Dennis Paul, contains more significance and meaning for the family than any Victorian novelist could construct.

Mrs Barber said: “We are overjoyed with our little bundle of fun and are having lots of fun as a family.

“John is after my dad, who died in January last year. We told my dad as he was dying that if we had a boy we would name him after him.”

Dennis is the name of Mr Barber's dad and Paul is taken from St Paul's Bay in Malta, where they spent their honeymoon last year and where their son was conceived.

Paul is also Mr Barber's brother's middle name and as well as Mrs Barber's cousin's.

The couple, who would like to have three or four children, are planning John's christening in June at St Botolph Church in Whitton - the same place the couple married on Mr Barber's birthday last year.

Mrs Barber said: “It will be close to our first wedding anniversary, which will be extra special.”

The pair met through the Evening Star's People to People pages two years ago when they both thought they would never find love.

Mrs Barber, who lived in Palmcroft Road, Ipswich, at the time but now lives in Lowestoft, said: “Jeremy lived in Halesworth so we were not destined to meet otherwise.

“We have done everything really, really quickly. We got engaged after five-and-a-half months, we got married a little while after that and we conceived on our first time of trying.

“Then John came along really quickly. It has been fantastic. It is like a dream.”

n. Do you have a story to tell? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

TIMELINE

January 2006 - Lorraine and Jeremy meet after posting adverts in the Evening Star's People to People pages.

July 2006 - Couple become engaged.

June 2007 - The pair marry at St Botolph Church in Whitton.

Wedding is followed by honeymoon to Malta, where their son is conceived.

February 2008 - Birth of their son by emergency caesarean section at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston.

March 2008 - Their son, John Dennis Paul, comes home from hospital.