Category: Adoption

Resolve New England Presents 21st Annual Conference

9/1/2014

Resolve New England presents the 21st annual conference on Saturday, November 8th. It will focus on Fertility treatment, donor choices and adoption.

I'm excited to be a virtual sponsor and proud to share this conference with my followers. Last year I was lucky enough to attend as a guest of Trak Fertility/Don't Cook Your Balls. There were wonderful exhibitors, programs and speakers that left you with a lot of information to make informative choices in the journey of infertility.

The keynote speaker this year is Judy Carr. She is the mother of last year's keynote speaker Elizabeth Jordan Carr, and she is the first woman to give birth after IVF in the United States. Her daughter was born in 1981 in Norfolk,VA. It is an honor to have her join this conference and share her unique story, ‘Raising an IVF Child, One Mother’s Perspective’! Read more about her at http://bit.ly/RNE_keynote

Don't miss this opportunity to attend. The day-long, multiple track sessions and workshops offer in depth exploration of the medical, emotional, and legal aspects of infertility, donor options, adoption, and other family-building choices. The conference features over 40 workshops and sessions with 5 tracks for treatment, adoption, donor options and surrogacy, emotional health, and complementary, financial and

Registration begins September 1st

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Advocacy Day Experiences 2013

5/11/2013

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This past Wednesday, May 8, 2013, I was part of a wonderful, empowering experience joined by so many other Advocates on Capital Hill in Washington DC for Resolve's Advocacy Day. There were 115 brave Advocates sharing their stories and letting their voices be heard for infertility. We were joined by sponsors from EMD Serono. The two bills that we were advocating for was The Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvements Act and The Family Act Bill.

There is so much to say and I hope that my post doesn't go too long but it's all important from who I met, to how I traveled to how the meetings went and making it home back to my family.

The morning before Advocacy Day I stayed in New York with family and took a bus into Penn Station to catch my Amtrack train. The train was the most pleasant ride, relaxing and productive with the convenience of WiFi service with charging areas at all seats. I was able to prepare make some calls and catch up on emails. When arriving into DC I took a cab to my hotel having about an hour to get ready for the Resolve reception. I was excited to meet so many other Advocates that I have communicated with online to name a few Casey Berna, Whitney Anderson, Jen Rutner, Holly (@Ready2BMom), Erin Lasker of Resolve New England and new staff members of Resolve, Simmy Bookal who did an amazing job for this day. The reception was a great meet and greet. Afterwards a group of girls from California, Ohio and Nevada went out to dinner and I joined them. It was a fun night out!

It was nice to get a good night sleep away from home the night before. The morning of Advocacy Day was an early day but I was ready to go. I was glad to have called for a wake up call because my cell phone's alarm didn't go off. That would have been bad. On the way to the training I met a couple from Pittsburgh We shared a cab, then after checking in it was a coincidence that they were at the same table with me. It was great to see the male presence and support from the spouses at Advocacy Day. I was excited to see Hysha Robinson Nesmith, Mrs. New York sharing in this day.

The stage was set to here from so many inspirational people, Barbara Collura, Director of Resolve, Risa Levine, Senator Patty Murray D-WA, Whitney Anderson, Jen Rutner and Cyndi Flynn of CA bringing me and others to tears.

It was then time to set out to your appointments. For Connecticut we had myself and Tracy Barclay representing the State with Ruth from EMD Serono who covers Connecticut. She joined us for all of our appointments as a supporting sponsor. Most of our appointments began in the afternoon so we were able to do our drop off materials to other Representatives plus we stopped in on Senator Kelly Ayotte's office of New Hampshire and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. Her Legislative Aide sat down with us for 10 minutes to hear about the bills we were advocating for. That was a great feeling when they had the time to show an interest. Ruth from EMD Serono had a special relationship with the Senator and to the district so we represented New Hampshire and Connecticut in the morning hours.

In the afternoon, we met up in the Longworth Building's Cafeteria meeting up with other Advocate's for lunch. We shared our days so far and then it was time for our appointment. Our group split up and I was able to attend the meet and greet for Congressman Rick Larsen of Washington. Since some of us had appointments immediately following I was part of the group that sat in his offices with his staff while he spoke and answered questions on the bill. Below is a great photo that was taken of the Advocates and Congressman in the hallway. Located directly behind me in the picture is Rosie Pope. I had no idea she was there until I was on the train back home with a NY Advocate that had the pleasure of spending the day with her. It was great to hear that she shared in this special day!

Photo Credit to Congressman Rick Larsen's Staff

The day went so fast after that, from appointment to appointment and from the House side to the Senate side several times. We met with Senator Christopher Murphy's office. This was funny because they had their temporary offices located in the basement of the Dirsken Building where I got lost; I called their offices and was still on time while the other girls in the group must have crossed paths with me already meeting with the Legislative Correspondent. When she returned she met with me for a few minutes too. We double teamed her with our information in a nice way.

We a had a brief break and we were able to attend the de-briefing to get a drink, have some cookies and re-group before our last two meetings. Representative Elizabeth Esty's Office was next and we actually had the opportunity to meet her personally for a few minutes before her staffer came out. She invited us to a screening for a documentary but we were unable to attend due to our schedules. Then it was off to our last meeting and that is when the heaven's opened up; it was pouring rain. We attempted to start to walk with our umbrellas but we were getting soaked. In order to be on time we had no choice but to grab a cab.

Finally, we arrived at the Hart Building, for our last meeting with Senator Blumenthal's Office. On our way up to the office we ran into the Actor Val Kilmer, he said, "Hey, ladies!" We were also greeted by another representative for our meeting. The staffer was running late but definatley worth the wait to hear that Senator Blumenthal just signed on the Women Veterans Act Bill that morning. It was such a great feeling to hear that, where we had a brief pause, not expecting that. I must have thanked her over and over making sure that I could announce the support to the other Advocates. I had to make sure I saw Senator Blumenthal's name as a new co-sponsor before announcing on my pages.

My day then became a rush trying to return to the hotel to pick up my luggage, walk to Union Station to get my train back home. I was so happy to be able to relax and have a travel companion from Advocacy Day, Casey Berna or better know as @ChancesOur. We finally had the opportunity to catch up from the day. It brought me great joy to know that a first time advocate attending had left inspired and empowered!

If you walked in our shoes today on this day or in our shoes down the path of infertility you would understand why we do what we do. This is a true passion for me to help others build their family like I did. If I can share my voice surrounded by so many others and make a difference then that is what I will do!

Thank you to the Resolve staff, volunteers, Advocates and to the Representatives and Senators staff for hearing our voices for Infertility! Standing together allows for less fear and more confidence, knowing we were all there for the same cause!

The hardest part of attending Advocacy Day was leaving my son. I missed him so much but I knew that someday he would understand why I go and he would be proud of his Mommy!

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National Infertility Awareness Week Re-Cap

5/1/2013

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If you missed my Facebook Posts on my National Infertility Awareness Re-Cap here it is. Thank you all for the support, Re-Tweets, Shares, Likes, Comments and Mentions.
You all made a difference and helped raise awareness for this year's
National Infertility Awareness Week!

We kicked off National Infertility Awareness Week on April 21st with the #IF1in8 Twitter chat with Lisa Drouillard, Founder of My Hopeful Journey and the Infertility Survival Kit mobile app along with Renee Waggener of Xtraordinary Fertility and Marni Hotchkiss of Bridge To Baby with Special Guest, Dr. Jeffrey Nelson of HRC Fertility.

Here is the transcript from the chat http://ow.ly/koMTi

Once Again, I organized The Video Movement on YouTube http://ow.ly/kut9N - Thank you to all the women that joined in the movement to share their stories and raise awareness. The videos were posted throughout many social media outlets to raise awareness during National infertility Awareness Week. Everyone’s story is their journey and their voice will make a difference!

Candace and Chris Wohl from Our MisConception Blog joined in to share their story with a special Guest Blog Post.
See the post here: http://ow.ly/kuuDF

#IFcelebs The community tried to get celebrities or public figures involved in raising awareness for infertility by asking for a RT on twitter to show their support! We didn’t have many RT’s from the celebrities but there were a few that were received and we are honored: Brenda Strong, Actress (@Brenda_Strong) Anne Craig, Good Morning Connecticut Anchor (@AnneCraig8) Tony Lucca (@Luccadoes) and Katrina Parker (@KatrinaPMusic), both Singers from THE VOICE.

Special thanks to Jackie Atkinson (@JackieA32) for the tweets from The Voice singers.

Thank you to the community for sharing in this for NIAW #IFcelebs

Huffington Post Live http://ow.ly/kk2x2 With Barbara Collura, Director of Resolve, The National Infertility Association and Dr. Alan Copperman of RMA of NY, google hangout guests included myself, Tia Ketant and Sandy Robertson. I was honored to have been included. Here is the short clip of what I had to say http://ow.ly/kuuy5

There have been so many online and other events in the infertility community during National Infertility Awareness Week, that I cannot begin to list them all. I have included a link to a blog post http://ow.ly/kuzE3 from Lisa Drouillard of My Hopeful Journey has done a wonderful job listing the events for NIAW.

In addition, Resolve The National Infertility Association also listed events that might not have been listed in the above link http://ow.ly/kuzCU

There were book displays of Infertility and Adoption books in two local CT libraries (New Fairfield and Danbury) Thank you to the great Authors in the community that donated their books for the display:

Elizabeth Swire Falker, Esq.
Helen Adrienne, LCSW
Krissi Marie McVicker
Dr. William Schoolcraft
Diana Pamentiero & Lenore Pranzo of Fertility Wellness Group LLC

In my local newspaper, The Citizens News in New Fairfield, CT they printed a small article on the book display.

Plus the New Fairfield Hamlet Hub published this article for NIAW http://ow.ly/kuzNo

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Resolve New England Presents 21st Annual Conference

Advocacy Day Experiences 2013

National Infertility Awareness Week Re-Cap

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