From the Dust Jacket: Skyrocketing infertility rates and the accompanying explosion in reproductive technology are revolutionizing the American family and changing the way we think about parenthood, childbirth, and life itself. In this riveting work of investigative reporting, Liza Mundy, an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post, captures the human narratives, as well as the science, behind what is today a controversial, multibillion-dollar industry, and examines how the huge social experiment that is assisted reproduction is transforming our most basic relationships and even our destiny as a species.

Based on in-depth reporting from across the nation and around the world, using riveting anecdotal material from doctors, families, and children—many of them now adults—conceived through in vitro fertilization, Mundy looks at the phenomena created by assisted reproduction and their ramifications. Never before in the history of humankind has it been possible for a woman to give birth to an infant who is genetically unrelated to her. Never before has it been possible for a woman to be the genetic parent of children to whom she has not given birth. Never before has the issue of choice had such kaleidoscopic implications. If you support reproductive freedom, does that mean you support everything being offered in the reproductive marketplace? Thawing frozen embryos and letting them expire? Selecting the sex of your baby? Conceiving triplets and “reducing” the pregnancy down to twins? Everything Conceivable explores the personal impact on individuals using assisted reproduction to conceive, and the moral, ethical, and pragmatic decisions they make on their journey to parenthood. It looks at the vast social consequences: for hospital neonatal wards, for family structure, for schools, for our notion of genetic relatedness and whether it matters, for adoption, for our nation as a whole and how we think about the earliest human life-forms. The book explores questions of social justice: the ethics of buying or borrowing some part of the reproductive process, as with egg donation and surrogacy. It looks at entirely new family structures being created by families who have conceived using sperm donors, so that children may have half-siblings around the country with whom they are, or are not, in contact. And it looks toward the future, to the impact today’s technology may have on coming generations.

Fascinating, commanding, keenly observed and reported, rich in personal drama as well as in the science of evolution and reproduction, Liza Mundy’s Everything Conceivable is a groundbreaking consideration of the changes sweeping through our culture and the world.

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About the Author: Liza Mundy was raised in Roanoke, Virginia, and received her A.B. degree from Princeton University and an M.A. at the University of Virginia, where she also taught. She is a feature writer at The Washington Post Magazine, where she has written articles and essays on family life, popular culture, the arts, and politics and was selected by Oliver Sacks for inclusion in The Best American Science Writing 2003. She has won awards from the Sunday Magazine Editors Association, among others. She has also written for Slate, Redbook, Washington City Paper, and Washington Monthly. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and two children.

Infertility can be a problem for anyone, but the modern age offers many options to combat it for those who desire to have children. These immense possibilities, however, are tangled with dilemma. In this book, you will read about three different families, each facing their own unique challenges on their path to parenthood. Unable to conceive on their own, they turned to semen and egg donors and surrogates for help.

This book provides resources and asks essential questions about single motherhood, adoption, and abortion to help you carefully think through your decisions about your unplanned pregnancy. It describes 78 reliable resources, link-able from the e-book, to accomplish your decisions. It
• Is your kind companion as you explore your pregnancy to make the right decision for you
• Provides factual information verified by gynecologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and nurses
• Helps you assess the biological father’s readiness for partnership and parenting
• Is so thorough and balanced it can be used in a conversation with your parents or partner.
Deciding to be a mother includes being willing to be a single mother should you lose your partner. The single motherhood questions help you explore how single motherhood would affect you, your partner, your child, and your family. The single motherhood resources discuss such things as calculating costs, lists of “how-to” books, support groups, money management, government programs, and housing choices. The adoption resources address adoption law, types of adoption, adoption agencies, selecting adoptive parents, and how you can establish an ongoing relationship with the adoption family and your child. In addition to legal and ethical issues, the abortion chapters examine contraception, miscarriage, medical abortion, RU-486, each surgical abortion type, abortion law, finding providers, funding, talk-lines, and determining how far along you are in your pregnancy.

From the Dust Jacket: In her introduction to this innovative book, Avlette Jenness asks, “Families—what are they?” and answers, “Your family is the people who take care of you, who care about vou.” In the pages that follow, seventeen young people describe in their own words a rich variety of families—all different in composition but all alike in loving and caring for their members.

Tam’s family is a big one—there are two children who weren’t adopted and three who were. Laney is an only child, but in her large Cuban-American family she has sixty-two relatives. Eve mostly lives with her mom, but she spends about two nights a week with her father and her stepmom. Ananda’s family is her parents and the other members of the religious community with whom thev live.

These are only a sampling of the children who tell their stories and are pictured here in lively photographs by the author. Each of them has learned something important about families—their problems and their joys—and the reader also gains new insight into that vital institution, the family.

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About the Author: Aylette Jenness was born in New York City in 1934. Her mother, Shelby Shackelford was a painter of some note and her father a physicist. The family moved to Baltimore in the 1940s when her father became a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Jenness attended Pratt Institute and later the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study sculpture. After teaching art at the elementary school level and working in day care she returned to school and received a masters degree in education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

She worked at the Boston Children’s Museum for 25 years as a cultural developer of exhibitions, public programs, curricula, festivals, and workshops for teachers. Several books resulted, including The Kid’s Bridge, and Families: A Celebration of Diversity, Commitment, and Love. She also worked with Lisa Kroeber in Guatemala to produce A Life of Their Own: An Indian Family in Latin America.

Now living on Cape Cod with her cat Purrsia, Aylette is navigating a new world as she is losing her vision to macular degeneration. She embraces the light streaming in through her windows reflecting off the waters of the bay and feels grateful for each new morning that she is given.

From the Dust Jacket: In Family Bonds, Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Bartholet raises profound questions about the meaning of family and the way society shapes options for the infertile. Illumined by the author’s compelling personal story, the book challenges the societal policies that help shape adoption, infertility treatment, surrogacy, and other new parenting arrangements.

Family Bonds will encourage and enlighten all who struggle with infertility and the decision whether to pursue treatment, adoption, or other parenting options. It will compel the attention of doctors, lawyers, child welfare workers, and policymakers.

In her poignant and controversial book, Bartholet examines policies that leave children without homes and would-be parents without children. She questions the wisdom of driving women to spend years in infertility treatment while pushing them away from adoption.

She talks about transracial and transnational families, single and older-parent families. She forces us to think about our goals for the family of the future.

Uniquely qualified to write this book, Bartholet is a recognized expert on civil rights and family law who has raised one child born to her, endured her own struggle with infertility, and recently adopted as a single parent two children born in Peru.

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About the Author: Elizabeth Bartholet, who has taught at Harvard since 1977, writes, lectures, and consults widely on issues involving adoption and reproductive technology. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her two younger children.

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By the Same Author: Nobody’s Children: Abuse and Neglect, Foster Drift, and the Adoption Alternative (1999, Beacon Press).

John Waldron had not intended to hire an undocumented worker, or several for that matter, but he needed help with caring for his two young sons. In A Father’s Angels, his affecting and redeeming tribute to four Hispanic women and their families, Waldron goes beyond simple stories of a single gay father. For more than a decade, through faith, creativity and most of all love, these illegal angels helped redirect the lives of a new father and his children, and along the way provided invaluable life lessons on the true meaning of family. Paulina was the first. She was large by every stretch of the imagination. Dressed in an oversized t-shirt and full cotton skirt, her size was immediately appealing to a peanut-sized three-year-old boy lost in her embrace. Carmen followed, Mormon bible in hand, her mission to bring order to the home. Ana, ever the playmate, came and went too quickly. And finally, there was Rosa, who not only brought her love and compassion, but her family as well. Each of these women demonstrated a joy for living in the moment and understood that there is no more important gift or skill than those shared with children. None had great career aspirations or a burning desire to achieve great wealth. All came with very little, but gave so much. Waldron reveals the challenges and anguish of navigating through a state adoption system and the bias that still exists against single and gay parents. His journey to adopt a second child brings him to Guatemala in an effort to complete his family. Throughout, a growing tide of hostility and retribution grows in Arizona, John’s home state, toward Hispanic immigrants both legal and illegal, creating a perilous situation for all. Raw, gripping, and utterly redemptive, A Father’s Angels humanizes the immigration discussion, and pays homage to unforgettably heroic women.

From the Back Cover: A single gay man’s guide to adoption!

Fatherhood for Gay Men: An Emotional and Practical Guide to Becoming a Gay Dad is the story of one man’s journey down the road less traveled—a single gay man adopting and raising his adopted sons. Author Kevin McGarry recounts his passage into parenthood after years of having his natural fathering instincts stifled by the limits—real and perceived—of being gay. This unique book details the emotional, financial, practical, and social realities of the adoption process for gay men.

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About the Author: Kevin McGarry, an accountant by trade, is also the author of “Anticipating Andrew,” a short story of his first meeting with the older of his two adopted sons.

Finding Yasha is a very personal account of a shared family experience. It all began with a son’s desire to become a single dad and his parents’ willingness to support him in that endeavor. The odyssey took them to Ukraine where the heart-wrenching search to identify a child to adopt began. The decision to create a Sketchbook/Journal was the result of their wish to document the anxieties and difficulties, the highs and lows, and the ultimate joy in finding Yasha.

This guide is for couples who need donor sperm due to vasectomy, azoospermia, Klinefelter’s Syndrome, or other male-factor infertility, for lesbians, and for single-by-choice moms who want to get pregnant for free without using a sperm bank, especially women who want to know how to get pregnant without having sex. It is also for the men who want to become free sperm donors in order to help them.

From the Back Cover: More and more gay men are becoming parents, and in Gay Fatherhood, Ellen Lewin presents an in-depth look at the experiences of this surprisingly overlooked group. Lewin takes as her focus people who undertake the difficult process of becoming fathers as gay men, rather than having become fathers while married to women. These men face many challenges in their quest for fatherhood, overcoming unique bureaucratic and financial hurdles as they pursue adoption or surrogacy and juggling questions about their future child’s race, age, sex, and health. Gay Fatherhood chronicles the lives of these men, exploring how they cope with political attacks from both the Right and the Left—while also shedding light on the evolving meanings of family in twenty-first-century America.

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About the Author: Ellen Lewin is professor in the departments of Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment and Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture.

From the Back Cover: Stop wasting your time and money to Successfully create the family you deserve.

If you would like a baby NOW, but things just are not happening, hang in there—We have the solution!

Frustration, anger, jealousy, and despair are common feelings in this situation. However, holding on to these emotions too long can further impair the ability to create your family. Jennifer and Victoria have been there and done that. The five-year experience to create their family is touching, inspiring, and provides insight on how to create your own family. After successfully going through the fertility process, they suffered a miscarriage at 17 weeks; tried adoption and held a baby for two days before returning home empty handed.

Then they discovered the secret of success through surrogacy. Katherine and Christopher, beautiful, healthy twins were born less than 12 months from when Jennifer and Victoria met and interviewed their surrogate.

You don’t have to be a celebrity to achieve your dreams, but we can learn from their successful family choices as well. Celine Dion used fertility treatments, Angelina Jolie and Rosie O’Donnell chose to adopt, and an increasing number of celebrities are now choosing surrogacy, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Quaid, and Sir Elton John.

Whether you want to have your children through fertility treatments, adoption, or surrogacy, Jennifer and Victoria have learned a lot of shortcuts that will help you save time and money. Getting to Baby will show you how to continue your journey with hope, optimism, and success.

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About the Author: Victoria Collier lives in Georgia where she has her own law practice helping the elderly. She is a published author. national speaker. and veteran of the United States Air Force. Victoria has a most loving dog. Joey. who is smitten with the children.

Jennifer Collier is a twin herself. She was a prosecutor for 15 years prior to becoming a mother. Jennifer now stays home with the children; her most challenging and rewarding job to date.

Victoria and Jennifer met in South Georgia in 1997. They knew from the beginning they wanted to have children together. Embarking on this Journey has been one to both challenge and strengthen their relationship.

God’s Diamond Among Rocks is a captivating, moving true story of the incredible struggles of a single parent and her adopted son. It is a story of love, hope, sacrifice, endurance and an unwavering trust in the promises of God for her son’s life. This story will capture your heart and reveal the hand of God and His unconditional love. Twenty years ago the author was my special needs son’s teacher. Her love for children is amazing. She lives her everyday life for the glory of God. I highly recommend this book.

From the Dust Jacket: This controversial book explores the fundamental changes in personal relationships that have taken place over the last decade, focusing on women who have deliberately chosen to have children outside a permanent relationship. After travelling widely throughout Britain, the United States and Holland meeting those personally involved, Jean Renvoize discusses why a growing number of women are deciding to become single mothers. She discovers the implications of this for the future of the family and for old-style love and commitment between the sexes. She analyses the position both of the children of these single families and of their mothers. She looks at men’s feelings about being used as a “stud” and uncovers the desire of some men to have a family without being financially and emotionally involved with a long-term partner.

Importantly, Jean Renvoize places the new style of personal relationship in the context of the advance of the women’s movement. It is clear that ordinary and non-political women’s and men’s lives have been more fundamentally changed by feminism than they may realise. But few of the mothers interviewed by the author are actively feminist: lesbians apart, they all have in common past relationships with men, and would happily settle with the right man could their high expectations be met.

Without exception, all those who made the deliberate choice to “go solo” have loving, joyful and rewarding experiences of motherhood. Having a child alone has been fraught with problems for all, but those who have met the challenge have found such great fulfillment that one is faced with an inevitable question: are a woman and her child better off without a man? When so many marriages end in divorce, is a stable unit of two better than a broken unit of three?

But, also, might those without the motivation of successful “solo mothers” rush thoughtlessly into motherhood — and find themselves exhausted, broke and very unhappy?

Presenting in their own words the experiences of those directly involved, this is above all a practical book. It provides welcome and necessary insights into today’s changing pattern of relationships — for the married and unmarried; for parents and non-parents.

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About the Author: Jean Renvoize is the author of three very successful related studies, Children in Danger (1976), Web of Violence (1978) and Incest (1982), all published by Routledge & Kegan Paul. She has also written four novels: The Masker (Secker & Warburg, 1960), A Wild Thing (Macmillan, 1970), The Net (Quartet; Stein and Day, 1974) and Coming Apart (Stein and Day, 1981).

From Kirkus Reviews: Single parenthood is, above all, an exercise in self-sufficiency, and this terse guide should dissuade the hesitant and hearten the self-reliant. Wholly non-judgmental in tone, it considers apposite subjects—decisions on marriage, abortion, adoption, and fostering before and methods of contraception after—but devotes relatively little attention—a mere 40 pages—to single parenthood itself. Most of that chapter deals with essentials such as securing financial support and handling social situations, but the advice is necessarily skimpy (few comments from those who’ve done it) and the unblinking acceptance of almost any circumstance condones some questionable behavior: e.g., a woman who feels uneasy in a community should dissemble (wear a wedding ring, claim widowhood or separation)—this recommended with no regard for the long-term consequences of such deception for her child. A useful listing of sources and rights, but the text tends to scant the substantial hurdles of parenting alone.

When the author takes a day trip to Tijuana, he’s just after a couple stiff drinks and an escape from the rigors of being a front man for a international billion-dollar computer company. What he finds instead is a run-down orphanage full of malnourished, haunted children and the ardent Madres who watch over them. At the Casa, the orphans have bags under their eyes and harbor strange secrets. They keep their eyes glued to the floor and they cling to the stucco corners of the compound, shying away from visitors despite their eagerness to explore anything connected with the outside world. Into this hive stumbles Bob, with the lone goal of testing out his fancy American computers on the Spanish-speaking children. But he soon loses his focus when he meets Guillermina, a sickly yet precocious eight-year-old whose genuine smile wins his cold, tired heart almost immediately. But as Guillermina’s English skills improve, so does her ability to reveal the nuns’ secrets, secrets which threaten the core of Mexican society and Catholic rule. While the author and Guillermina attempt to forge a happy path to adoption, details about the Casa begin to surface from their quiet depths, and the pair soon fears for their lives. Guillermina and the Rose is a true story of a relationship formed in the midst of chaos and corruption. Despite the problems that besiege them and the trials they must face, the author and Guillermina never doubt their love and need for each other, and their faith is a testament to what is possible when we hold tight to hope and have faith. All is completed when a rose is presented to Guillermina in a crowd from a child that no one sees but her and her new father. Yet, Guillermina holds a rose from out of nowhere.

Now in its sixth edition, The Handbook for Single Adoptive Parents provides much needed information of particular interest to single adopters. The book is divided into six sections: the mechanics of adoption, managing single parenthood, coping with challenges, personal adoption experiences, frequently asked questions, and studies by professional social scientists showing the success of single parent adoption.

From the Back Cover: A courageous and distinguished leader in the maternal and child health field, Elizabeth Noble has written a startling analysis of the practical, legal, and ethical problems infertile couples face in becoming parents through third-party conception. Noble addresses these problems by examining the technological advances that are being made in the field of “assisted conception” and discussing the lessons of adoption reform as well as her own family’s experience with donor insemination. She brings a remarkably encouraging and personal quality to this unique book and alerts us to the crucial importance of a complete genetic and family history for any child.

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About the Author: Elizabeth Noble is the director of the Maternal and Child Health Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the founder of the Obstetrics and Gynecology section of the American Physical Therapy Association. Her previous books include Essential Exercises for the Childbearing Year, Having Twins, and Childbirth with Insight.

Women who have lost ovarian function or whose eggs are not of good quality and those who are carriers of genetic disorders can experience pregnancy, birth and parenthood with the use of donated oocytes; but coming to this decision is not an easy process. Having Your Baby through Egg Donation answers questions about age and pregnancy and parenting, about talking to children about their donor conception, about ethical and religious questions, about honesty vs secrecy, about communicating with a parenting partner, and more in a compassionate, fully informed manner. Vignettes describing the decision making and experience of others who have traveled this road to parenthood expand and exemplify research and philosophical resources. Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation helps individuals and couples, including those with special circumstances (e.g. gay and lesbian, single women, multi-ethnic families) decide whether egg donation is right for them. It addresses such questions as: “should we choose adoption or egg donation?” and “should I ask a my sister to donate and if so, how do I raise the subject with her?” and “How do I evaluate a recruited-donor program?” Ethical and religious questions are explored as well as the logistics of finding a donor, attempting pregnancy, history and future directions and much, much more. Ellen Sarasohn Glazer and Evelina Weidman Sterling provide both compassionate support and essential information about how to pursue pregnancy and parenthood through egg donation in this comprehensive tool.

From the Publisher: On April 15, 2006, a red-headed, 46-year-old American executive drove Highway 101 through the coastal fog with three children abandoned by fieldworkers and felons asleep beneath blankets quick lit by the haloed high-beams of passing cars and trucks. Under a crescent pearl moon, the migrant family of four bid farewell to Santa Barbara County and their past.

He Shall Appear From Nowhere is a haunting and deeply human chronicle of four strangers turned family and the brutality, obstacles, and discrimination they rebuff with grit, humor, and purpose. A multi-ethnic odyssey, He Shall Appear From Nowhere obliterates the traditional distinctions between race, gender, and class, and transforms today’s prosaic immigration debate into a spinning kaleidoscope.

In 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, only 8,000 children were adopted from local Social Services agencies by people without a previous relationship with the children. Just 2%, or 160, entered the home of a single male. David Marin adopted three. He was likely the only single Caucasian man in the nation to adopt three minority children.

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About the Author: David Marin (pronounced “marine”) is the Vice President of Mainstreet Media Group, publisher of 21 California newspapers and magazines. After graduating from law school in 1995, he held executive positions at E.W. Scripps, MediaNews, and Pulitzer Newspapers. David is an award-winning public speaker. He honed his presentation skills through the national organization Toastmasters where he competed against other highly trained presenters. David, a comfortable and engaging speaker, has made dozens of presentations to large audiences, among them, local community associations, business owners, and reader groups. David has the presence and skills suited to national media. Born in Georgia, David, who is half Puerto Rican, was raised in the Midwest, attended prep schools on the East coast, and has spent the past twenty years on the West Coast. An adventurer by nature, he has traveled to eleven countries and visited thirty-six of our fifty states. He has gone skydiving in Arizona, water skied on the Caribbean, tried to join Lech Walesa’s 1981 anti-communist Polish revolution, and rescued giant green sea turtles in Central America. By far the greatest adventure of David’s life—and his most powerful asset for the promotion of He Shall Appear From Nowhere—is his fatherhood. David and his children live in California.

From the Back Cover: Each year donor insemination (DI) offers a pathway to parenthood for the hundreds of thousands who turn to family-building alternatives. Although DI is considered as often as adoption, couples facing male infertility, as well as single women and lesbian couples, have had few places to turn for information about this method, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

In Helping the Stork, parents-to-be, as well as friends and family, doctors, and counselors, can explore the choices and challenges raised by this alternative to overcoming childlessness. This comprehensive handbook moves through each step of the process: reaching a solid decision about whether donor insemination is the best choice for a family’s future; handling the difficult issue of privacy; selecting a donor and getting started; and learning to thrive as a family meeting DI’s added challenges. Full of wisdom from medical and mental health experts, Helping the Stork is also enriched with stories from many families who share their insights and experiences.

This book is a reassuring, supportive, and helpful guide that no one considering or going through the process of donor insemination should be without.

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About the Author: Carol Frost Vercollone, M.S.W., became the first clinical social worker to join the staff of the national infertility organization RESOLVE, and currently offers workshops for those involved with donor insemination.

Heidi and Robert Moss have two children conceived with the help of a donor, and share their experiences throughout the book. Heidi created a DI hotline for a RESOLVE chapter, and earned her degree in social work in order to counsel parents to be. Robert is a college biology professor and contributor to both science and education journals.

Five million Americans want children but cannot conceive. One million couples seek infertility treatment every year, almost always without prior knowledge of the physical, emotional, and financial costs of high-tech conception (as a rule it is not covered by insurance), and without any way to judge the hard-sell come-ons of what is now a $2-billion, for-profit, unregulated industry that preys on their desperate hopes by promising outcomes that are all too rarely successful. This authoritative, lucid, balanced, and forthright book describes the very latest information on high-tech conception, with information on techniques of fertilization, the latest research, and the nature and risks of the potent drugs used to assist in fertilization and implantation. Its goal is to help infertile individuals become informed consumers by describing the different procedures, and showing them how to interpret and compare clinics’ claimed success rates; examine the factors that affect success; critically assess the safety of the different techniques both for the mothers and the babies born through such procedures; and understand the importance of genetic screening in in-vitro fertilization.

From the Publisher: Hola: An Adoption Adventure is a chronicle of one woman’s adventures as she struggles with fear while trying to adopt her infant daughter in a politically stressed third-world country. Ultimately, Shaina finds that blind courage and faith are her best tools for survival. Hola is replete with information about the adoption process and its possible pitfalls. It offers a picture of Honduras physically, culturally and politically.

At the age of forty-two, Shaina, a single, politically naïve Jewish woman, decides she would like to raise a child. She begins her search for a healthy infant with a public adoption agency, is recommended to a private religious agency and eventually finds herself exploring “foreign” adoptions. Her quest leads her into Honduras and a Kafkaesque series of events guaranteed to keep the pages turning.

Hola includes an illegal lawyer wanted by his government, a kidnapping attempt, a non-supportive adoption agency and a certain amount of the author’s own paranoia. It’s filled with action, adventure, suspense, some fantasy and comes complete with a happy ending. This is a true story.

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About the Author: Shaina Maidel was born and raised in the clamor and clutter of New York City, attended a pristine college in up-state New York and spent the next several years tasting the flavor of various spots on the U.S. map. She finally settled in a typical mid-west town where she resides today. Shaina believes each person has a life defining moment. For Shaina, Hannah’s adoption was such a moment. It coalesced her past, centered her present and led her into an unimagined, exciting and fulfilling future. Shaina spent many years as a teacher of pre-school children, many more as a teacher of public school children and an added number of years as a social worker in the public schools. Hannah’s adoption forced her into an early retirement to begin her fourth and most challenging career—that of parent. Parenting, she says, has helped her define who she is and how she wants to be in the world. It has given her the joy of guiding a young person through the shoals of childhood ills, into the muddy waters of youthful peer problems, through the raging of teen torments; all the while watching Hannah blossom into the beautiful young woman she’s become.

From the Back Cover: It used to be that, if you were single and contemplating parenthood, you faced a formidable, complicated bureaucracy—and the lack of any type of literature that might aid you in making a rational, successful decision.

Now, with the advent of this remarkable new resource guide written by a single parent, you can get straight facts and advice on the issues involved in becoming a single parent.

From financial and legal considerations to emotional and social factors, this book outlines the challenges and practicalities you’ll face when undertaking adoption or natural parenthood alone. Replete with case studies to save you from the pains of trial-and-error learning—plus a list of sources that provide information on adoption—this is a pragmatic, thought-provoking guide that will help you make what could be the most important decision of your life. But more important, this is a book that supports and encourages your every effort to become a single parent and to enjoy the loving rewards of parenthood.

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About the Author: Josephine J. Curto, Ph.D., is a professor of communications and children’s literature at Tallahassee Community College in Florida. She is the author of five published books and a well-known speaker on single parenting and adoption. Dr. Curto, a single parent, has spent more than three decades of her life working with children and young people.

From the Back Cover: Shipping chilled semen is an inexpensive and effective alternative to sperm banks. This book explains in detail with many photographs, drawings, etc., how to determine a recipient’s fertile time, prepare and ship chilled semen, inseminate, test for pregnancy, protect privacy, etc. It explains how to predict ovulation with the OPK (ovulation prediction kit), basal temperatures, changes in cervical mucus, changes in the position of the cervix, mittelschmerz (ovulation pains), ferning, or the Ovacue. It explains what to do when the unexpected, such as two ovulations in one cycle, happens, and summarizes key dates in the woman’s reproductive cycle. It explains in detail with many photographs, drawings, and other images the contents of the shipping kit and how to collect semen, prepare for shipping, and ship it. Discusses in detail how to ship semen overnight with express mail carriers such as UPS or FedEx, including many problems that arise and how to deal with them, such as what to do when you need to deliver weekends or holidays, or when carriers do not deliver. It explains in detail with many photographs, drawings, and other images what semen should appear like when the recipient receives the samples and how to evaluate the semen for viability with a microscope and how to inseminate with a syringe, speculum, catheter, or Softcup. It explains how to read home pregnancy tests with many pictures of test results.

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About the Author: I am an admin on a free internet sperm donor group. I am also a donor with dozens of kids. Women looking for a free donor often ask the same questions. So do men who want to be a donor. I write the same answers many times. No doubt people asking the questions can’t find the answers later. So I collected in one convenient location all the answers to the questions people ask most frequently. Good luck to all in your journey and I hope this book helps you achieve your goals.

Come join me on the winding road to ... Me 2.0!! It’s a story full of laughter, struggles, and randomness. See, I’ve been trying to figure out who the hell I am. I’m a daughter, a sister, a worker, a wife, a Mom?? Yikes!!?? You may chuckle or shed a tear or maybe even relate to me in some teeny tiny way. Or not...

From the Dust Jacket: While Julia Sweeney is known as a talented comedienne and writer and performer of her one-woman shows, she is also a talented essayist. Happily for us, the past few years have provided her with some rich material. Julia adopted a Chinese girl named Mulan (“After the movie?”) and then, a few years later, married and moved from Los Angeles to Chicago. She writes about deciding to adopt her child, strollers, nannies (including the Chinese Pat), knitting, being adopted by a dog, The Food Network, and meeting Mr. Right through an email from a complete stranger who wrote, “Desperately Seeking Sweeney-in-Law.” She recounts how she explained the facts of life to nine-year-old Mulan, a story that became a wildly popular TED talk and YouTube video.

Some of the essays reveal Julia’s ability to find that essential thread of human connection, whether it’s with her mother-in-law, who candidly reveals a story that most people would keep a secret, or with an anonymous customer service rep during a late-night phone call. But no matter what the topic, Julia always writes with elegant precision, pinning her jokes with razor-sharp observations while articulating feelings that we all share.

Poignant, provocative, and wise, this is a funny, and at times powerful, memoir by a woman living her life with originality and intelligence.

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About the Author: Julia Sweeney began her career with the Groundlings in Los Angeles and was a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994, where she created the infamous androgynous character Pat. She has also written and performed in several successful, critically acclaimed one-woman shows: God Said “Ha!”, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. She has written for, acted in, and done voice-over work for countless television shows and films, including the forthcoming Monsters, Inc., prequel for Pixar. She lives just outside of Chicago with her husband and daughter.

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By the Same Author: God Said “Ha!”: A Memoir (1997), In the Family Way: A Comedic Monologue (Audio CD, 2007), and Letting Go of God (DVD, 2008).

From the Back Cover: Conceiving your own child is difficult. Innovative technologies in assisted reproduction explore new alternatives to traditional pregnancy, but legal matters and financial considerations complicate these choices. Educate yourself on the available options that are allowing families to bring a baby into their homes.

The Infertility Answer Book answers your questions regarding the advantages and disadvantages involved with all of the options available.

■ How do I find an egg donor? ■ Will my insurance cover fertility treatments? ■ What happens in cryopreservation if a parent dies? ■ What are the risks with using a surrogate?

■ Should I also be trying adoption? ■ What laws are involved with insemination? ■ How do I keep embryo donation private? ■ When should I discuss my ART choice with my child?

The Infertility Answer Book is your complete guide to the family-building possibilities beyond traditional pregnancy.

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About the Author: Brette McWhorter Sember received her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and practiced in New York state before leaving her practice to become a writer. She is the author of more than twenty books, including how to Parent with Your Ex: Working Together for Your Child's Best Interest. She is a member of ASJA (American Society of Journalist and Authors) and AHCJ (Association of Health Care Journalists). She is the recipient of the 1999 Media Award from Family and Home Network (formerly Mothers at Home).

Sember has extensive training in cases involving children and was on the Law Guardian panel in three counties. Her practice included adoptions, which she found to be the happiest cases to take place in Family Court. She is also a trained family mediator and is experienced in a wide variety of family issues. Children have always been her main focus throughout her career.

Sember writes and speaks often about children and family. Her work has appeared in magazines such as ePregnancy, Child, and American Baby. She is the mother of two children and has personal experience with fertility issues.

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By the Same Author: The Complete Adoption and Fertility Legal Guide (2004); Gay and Lesbian Parenting Choices: From Adopting or Using a Surrogate to Choosing the Perfect Father (2006, Career Press); The Adoption Answer Book (2007); Unmarried with Children: The Complete Guide for Unmarried Families (2008, Adams Media); and The Everything Parent’s Guide to Raising Your Adopted Child: A Complete Handbook to Welcoming Your Adopted Child Into Your Heart and Home (with Corrie Lynn Player & Mary C Owen; 2008, Adams Media).

So begins the saga: In the initial visit with my son, I witnessed a child who was bright, smiled, yelled, stomped his feet and screamed. It was not that he could not talk, he would not talk. He had his own language, created in his mind to get his needs satisfied as a result of them not being met prior. I was told that he could only say seven words, all in Spanish. I went to a corner on this initial visit and sat there with a book and a stuffed bear and waited. Ever so slowly, he approached me, would touch me and run away and giggle. Eventually, he sat in my lap and looked at me for a while, with his social worker, the foster mother and my adoption worker looking on he put his hand on my face and said, “daddy.” This was not one of the words that he knew and it was not in Spanish ... so it began.

From the Publisher: Divided into three parts, this book addresses the pressing challenges presented by the proliferation of international surrogacy arrangements.

Part 1 contains National Reports on domestic approaches to surrogacy in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. The reports are written by domestic specialists, each demonstrating the difficult and urgent problems arising in many States as a result of international surrogacy arrangements. These National Reports not only provide the backdrop to the proposed model regulation appearing in Part 3, but serve as a key resource for scrutinizing the most worrying incompatibilities in national laws on surrogacy.

Part 2 of the book provides international perspectives on cross-border surrogacy, such as the “human rights” perspective.

Part 3 contains a General Report, which consists of an analysis of the National Reports, together with a proposed model of regulation of international surrogacy arrangements at the international level.

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About the Author: Paul Beaumont is a Professor of European Union and Private International Law at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Katarina Trimmings is a Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

A chance encounter in a Nicaraguan airport forever changes the lives of two people in this touching story that begins in a Managuan barrio. Juan Francisco Espinoza is a twelve-year-old shoeshine boy when fate places Karl Price, the principal of an American school in Venezuela, in his path. Though they only meet in passing, Price is so taken with the eager child’s winning personality that a correspondence begins between them. The relationship between the American man and Nicaraguan child deepens to the point where Price offers to raise Juan as his son. Juan, who already has a loving, albeit impoverished home, knows that Price is offering him a miraculous opportunity, and with the blessing of his natural family, moves to Venezuela. After a short time, the newly cobbled family fares so well together that Price and Juan decide to take in another child. The three are happy together until changes in Price’s employment alter the delicate balance of their family. Compelled to return to the United States, times become difficult for Price and his sons. Contending with the adjustments they need to make in coping with the changes in climate and culture is hard enough, but when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services send Juan back to Nicaragua, their world is ripped apart. In this memorable narrative, Juan tells his own story in a voice that resonates with courage and truth. As he describes the frustrating and tragic struggle to be reunited with his adopted father and brother, we come to know an extraordinary young man of rare strength and resiliency.