Financial Assistance for Fertility Treatments or Adoption

Not only are you struggling with getting pregnant and carrying to term, but you are now facing some tough financial choices. Or worse, you think you have no choice when it comes to the money you need to get testing, hormones, meds, procedures or maybe adoption. Fertility Within Reach has compiled a list of resources for grants and financial assistance. Included are tips for filling out applications and a list of mistakes to avoid. There may be a surprise piece to your puzzle here.

Have you found resources that have been helpful to you in paying for expenses related to becoming a parent? If so, what has worked best for you? If you have insurance, who is your carrier and does your carrier support fertility treatments and/or adoption? Please share in the comments box below. Let’s help each other find solutions.

Coach Louise and Coach Julie

Dear blog reader,

Coach Louise began this blog with the intention that it be a place to share stories, ask questions, get support in a safe place of understanding and compassion, as well as a source for information on the topic of infertility, miscarriage, treatments etc. I am so excited to be taking over the administration of the blog and continuing on the mission of supporting you on your unique fertility journey. If you’d like to know more about me and what I offer, please click About Julie or visit Whole Vision Coaching. I’m so glad you’re here. Most importantly, I really want you to understand that you are not alone and this part of your adventure does not define who you are.

Having experienced the frustrations of unexplained infertility personally, I recognize that the experience can be isolating when the people around you don’t necessarily understand what you are going through. It is also often the first crisis couples come up against where there is really no control over the outcome. I want to connect with you and give you as much support as possible to lead a life full of joy and balance no matter the outcome of your pursuit of parenthood. I can also help to guide you and propose different alternatives that you might not have considered yet from a purely objective point of view.

Ultimately, I can offer you a space like a comfy sofa that you can fall into to feel comforted and reassured and so much more while on this unexpectedly challenging journey.

With love,
Coach Julie

Get a huge sprinkling of Baby Dust in the New Year: New Telecircle ‘ The Fertile Foundation Powercircle’ starts Mon 19th Jan & Tues 20th Jan. Available to all with a phone or Skype!

Get Inspired…

Dear Friends,

A new type of support group (with a coaching twist to keep us on a positive track) is starting soon!   The exciting part is that you don’t have to drive anywhere, you can just call in on a specific telephone number (that I will provide) at the same time each week for one hour.   This support group is quite different to any other that you might have come across in the traditional sense.   We will be coming to the calls from a place of love, non-judgement, and positive energy.

I have found that groups I do coaching with over the phone, really enjoy a close connection with each other, and I believe part of that is the fact that no one knows one another, and can’t see each other!  Hard to believe!?

Everyone relaxs in that space and just takes the time out to be nurtured, to share, to be coached, and to set inspired actions that week that will support the ongoing journey in trying to conceive, whether naturally or through medical assistance.

This group is specifically for those who face the challenge of infertility and the steps they take from that diagnosis.  There will be two groups, one for newbies who are new to this journey, and another for women who are at least 1 year in.

If anyone would like to enquire or book their space ( limit of 8 to a group, so everyone gets to participate) please email me at louise@keystoclarity.com or call me on 732-2992347.   The cost of belonging to this group is nominal to cover my personal outlay, as I see this as a way to give back a community that has been very important to me over the last few years.   The monthy fee is $50.

Baby Dust Powercircle     (for Newbies)  will take place at 12pm Noon EST or – 5 hrs GMT

Mega Baby Dust  Powercircle  (for the more seasoned ladies who have been on the journey for over a year) will start on 20th Jan 12pm Noon EST (or – 5 hrs GMT)

Please pass this information or link onto anyone you know who might like to know about this opportunity.  Many thanks!

Warmly,

Coach Louise

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This time Coach Louise is being interviewed! She will make a guest appearance on Conscious Choices Radio Show tomorrow 4.30pm EST. Come and listen!

Join me tomorrow! Feel free to join the conversation with questions or comments.

Hi Everyone,

I am honored to be invited as a guest on Conscious Choices Radio Show http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ConsciousChoices , which will take place on the 12/30/08 at 4.30pm EST! (thats tomorrow)

I am being interviewed so the conversation will be lively! We will be discussing lots of different things that make our lives interesting, and how coaching is part of the quest to finding out what makes us tick and realise our potential! Who knows what the questions will be! I’m hoping a big part of our discussion will also be about setting clear intentions going into the New Year, and how we can make a conscious choice around what is most important to us to help guide us around what we want to focus on going into 2009! I am the KeystoClarity! Coach, so come and learn a little more about me, and what exciting ventures and adventures will be happening next year….next week and how they could involve you, or set you on your own path!

www.blogtalkradio.com/ConsciousChoices  is the link to listen, participate, or access the archived podcast after the show.

Warmly yours,
Coach Louise Crooks

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A Key to creating peace and tranquility through the Holidays!

Hi All my Fertile Wannabes (myself included!)

Marcia Wieder, America’s Dream Coach just sent out her monthly Dreamzine and I was pleasantly surprised to hear the revelation she had while on a very recent Vision Quest, which gave her great insight to achieving peace.  Even though the article is not relevant to Infertility per se, its message is still powerful, and very pertinent to our journey!  I encourage you to read it!  Just click the link to my www.keystoclaritycoach.wordpress.com and you will get the full story there!  Enjoy!  (sit down and have a cup of tea!)

Peacefully yours,

Coach Louise

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Group Program starting on Monday!

Wow, it’s amazing but the beginning of November is almost here!  Together with the elections, beautiful fall colors (in USA), the Holiday Season and of course the all important, infertility journey you are taking.  (Myself included!)  When the majority of people surrounding us are totally unaware of the added burden that we carry and the emotional rollercoaster we might be on, LIFE goes on.  Here is an opportunity to join a small group of women, who are walking in your shoes…

 The Fertile Foundation Power Circle starts Monday, the 3rd November 2008 

Be part of an intimate group without leaving your sofa!  Our group will meet on a weekly basis, by phone (or Skype)  at 12noon EST (- 6hrs GMT) for one hour.  I will give you simple instructions to follow upon your registration.   Initially, everyone in the group will get a chance to share their story, and get to know one another. We will take the opportunity, in the on-coming weeks, to:

·     Be heard, without feeling judged.

·     Know that we are in a safe and confidential space of sharing our feelings and experiences.

·     Get to clarify our hopes and dreams of our journey however it progresses (natural, IUI, IVF, donor,adoption, child-free).

·     Set clear intentions on how to take charge of our journey – emotionally, physically and spiritually.  This covers a whole gamut of topics that we can discuss- just to name few:

·          diet,

·          exercise,

·          specialists,

·          tests,

·          dealing with miscarriage,

·          grief,

·          communication with our spouse

·          pregnant friends,

·          interfering family

·          Holiday gatherings  etc!

  This is where we can build our ‘foundation’ for fertility!

·     Be resources of information and a sounding board for one another.

·     Come to a place where you might just want be ‘cradled’ in that moment, and supported in general.

·     Get tips and tools from Louise on making the journey an easier and more joyful one.

·     To learn more about the Law of Attraction.

·     Discover how to become more than your infertility with the guidance of Marina Lombardo’s book.  (to learn more about this – listen to my latest radio show  www.blogtalkradio.com/KeystoClarity-coach )

·     Be part of a group moving forward together, instead of isolating ourselves which happens all to easily.

·     Be part of an intimate group without leaving your sofa!

·     Get coaching from Louise when you get stuck – yes, lots of stickiness on this journey!

·     Learn tips to relax and de-stress in preparation for a successful outcome.

·     Have access to a private group online forum to talk in between sessions.

·     Have unlimited email access to Louise in between sessions.

·     Make new and meaningful friendships with amazing women facing similar issues to you!

I am thrilled and so moved to be able to facilitate this program.  This group is about taking women out of isolation and into a setting where they feel safe and supported. Where women are in a positive environment that can help them to make plans about their future, and deal with positive and negative experiences as they happen.  This is about creating a safe space to share and not be analyzed!  This is about women who deserve to be nurtured and taken care of, especially when they are taking care of everybody else!

Give yourself permission to get support on this special and often difficult journey, especially when the goal is such an important one. 

If you are interested in joining us, , please contact Louise as soon as possible.   There are just a few spaces left in the November group.   If the timing isn’t right, there will be a new program starting in January – again limited space, so book in advance.   I invite you to inquire if you are curious!  My contact details are on the Contact page! or you can comment on the post.

Each one of you will be an integral part of this sacred space, for yourself, and for each and every one of the women participating. I am really looking forward to creating this special space with you.

Warmly,

Coach Louise

Louise Crooks – LifeBalanceinFertility Coach

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PS: Don’t let distance / time-zone get in your way!  One of our group members is from the Philippines

Interview: Marina Lombardo, Author and Therapist regarding Infertility Issues

Meet Marina Lombardo!

I am inviting you to listen in on my talk show.  Get all the juicy details about it by clicking on the following link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/KeystoClarity-Coach  (cut and paste into browser in you are not able to click on link)

I will be interviewing Marina Lombard co-author of ‘I Am More Than My Infertility – 7 Proven Tools for Turning a Life Crisis into a Personal Breakthrough’  on Monday 27th at 4pm Eastern.  (-5hr GMT).  .Marina has been a psychotherapist for 20yrs and has a practice counseling women, and couples who are experiencing infertility. We will have an in depth discussion with Marina about the emotional journey of infertility and will  share tips you can use to manage your journey. Any questions are welcome, please feel free to call in the number provided on the screen –  once you have clicked on the link.   If you register on the site, you will also be able to participate in the chat room, and comment or ask questions there.

If you miss the show, you will be able to access to the archived podcast at the same link.

Please forward this info to anyone you think might find this information valuable or of interest. Thanks!

Louise Crooks (your LifeBalanceinFertility Coach) is a professional member of RESOLVE    www.resolve.org

Hope to meet some of my blogging buddies on the show!

Warmly,

Coach Louise

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The Fertile Foundation Powercircle is starting soon….

Join me!

Hi to all my dear friends,

If you are thinking how nice it would be to talk to people going through the same or similar things to you, and get some real support, then this is the place for you.

We will meet once a week on the phone, teleconference style, to talk as a group (limited to 6 people).   I am so looking forward to facilitating this type of meeting where we can be heard, speak authentically, and take small steps to creating our amazing future, with or without the end result we desire so much.  We will be there every step of the way.  We have a big one coming soon – the holidays… how do we handle family, and friends, and  gatherings with children/babies in tow?!  This is just one of many things we will get to discuss in our special group.  Lets take the opportunity to empower ourselves!

If you are interested and want to know more about this, please email me on louise@keystoclarity.com or respond to this post.    The group starts on the Monday the 3rd of November 2008 at 12noon Eastern Standard Time.  (GMT -5hrs)

lovingly yours,

Coach Louise

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PS  I know there are some wonderful women I have been blogging with on this special journey (you know who you are)  and I would be so happy for you to join me by participating in this unique experience!  Consider yourself invited!

Grief. How do we get through it during the infertility process?

The sun sets on today, opening up new possibilities tomorrow…

Hi all,

I had a moment of clarity this morning, a wonderful reminder that it is okay to feel strong emotions, so we can let them go, to bring new and wondrous things into our lives.   It is an opportunity to be able to move out of the grief and beyond, when we allow ourselves to express and experience the grief to begin with.  The society we have been brought up in doesn’t condone showing emotion, particularly for men.  Well its about time that all changed!  We would live much healthier and happier lives if we were able to express our emotions without having to worry about others expectations, and in turn our own.    You can make a change right now, to change your own expectations of yourself and others.

My grandmother’s funeral was today.  It was in Northern Ireland and for a number of reasons I couldn’t be there.   So today has been a bit of weird day for me, but mainly sad.   My DH and I went for a walk in the woods, which was great – it gave me the chance to feel a sense of peace and connectedness, but it also allowed me to  acknowledge how sad I was feeling.    I realised that I was doing what so many of us do, which is fighting the feeling of sadness – that is just too painful to remain in that space, wanting to ‘snap out of it’ and feel ‘normal’ again.  Well, ironically as I write this, I recognise that these feelings are ‘normal’…. What is ‘normal’ afterall ?- everyone has a different perception or definition.    I transgress…

Anyway, I realised I was being impatient and didn’t want to experience feeling such sadness.  It occurred to me, especially because of the work I have done, personally going through the untimely loss of my mother and a miscarriage/ infertility too, and through The Journey experience, that I was forgetting something.   We have to embrace these strong emotions of loss, to be able to move past and beyond them, and to heal.   (That doesn’t mean you forget the person you lost, it just means you are able to let go of the pain, and remember them in genuine and positive way through the wonderful memories you have created together.  Their death doesn’t define them.)   This might not apply to miscarriage or grieving the vision of what our life might have been like – but it is grief all the same.  Some of us hang onto our grief wearing it like a banner for years and years, but how is that serving us and honouring life at large?   Its a great question to ask yourself.

Through The Journey, which is about healing at a cellular level from emotional and physical wounds,  it became very clear to me that we have to confront our feelings and emotions, to get a sense of freedom and of letting go.  To me, being able to let go, allows us to bring new possibilities into our lives…  to be able to keep going and striving, and living!   I am not saying put a time limit on your grieving, but allow yourself the opportunity to grieve, when it arises – this will help you move through the process of grieving more quickly.

So today, I sit in quiet contemplation embracing my grief not just for this grandmother but also for others I have lost and for myself.    I cancelled all my appointments because I owe it to myself,  I let the tears come when they come,and I am nurturing my soul.

Bless all those of you who are grieving.   Know that we are all connected. www.thejourney.com

Warmly,

Louise

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Are you feeling overwhelmed? Effects on Fertility.

Hi everybody!

WAKE UP and smell the ….. !

I just watched an Oprah show which focused on a woman who left her baby in her car by accident.  8 hours later the baby was discovered, and had died of heatstroke.   So so so sad.

One might think that those of us trying to have a baby – naturally or through ART, might be outraged or horrified by this woman’s actions.   But I am full of compassion and empathy for her.   She is devastated, her husband is devastated, and she is now, a year later, making sure that the sacrifice her baby daughter Cecilia made, sends a message to all of us out there.   I want to help to get that message out there.

The big lesson from that show and that poor woman was that she was total overwhelmed that day and lost the plot.  She was a vice principle at a school, and school had just started its new term that day.  Her husband normally took the children to shool/daycare in the morning.  That day he had a dentist appointment and he asked his wife to take the kids to school and daycare.  She took the 1 child to school, but it was too early to drop off her baby at daycare, and she had a list as long as her arm of things she was focusing on for that day.  The pressure was on.  She drove to her work (school) as she normally would and started her day.    8 hrs later as she was preparing to leave, her colleague asked her if she had just picked up her daughter from daycare, as she had seen her in the car.      All hell broke loose, as she realised what she had done and rushed to the car, to find little Cecilia, dead.

Gosh, I have to breathe in, just to anticipate her agony in that moment, and all the moments thereafter.   When afterall it was just a mistake.  A big one, granted, but still a mistake.  It could have happened to ANYONE!

She was overwhelmed, trying to be everything to everyone, trying to take care of everything.  There is no such thing as being super mom – being a mom, wife, and have a job/business, and be able to do all those things / roles with attention, focus and mindfulness.   Something has to suffer at the expense of other. Wake up everybody!  Its time to take stock of your day to day life, and look at what you are doing with your time.   Does it have any meaning?  Or are you racing onto the next thing, thinking of what you need to get done, thinking of what you haven’t accomplished for that day.   A lot of people out there live this way.  Part of that is due to the messages we receive about how we ‘should be’ in our society, and also the expectations we create of ourselves.   But it is time to take responsibility for ourselves.   For our wellbeing!

I remember a time when I was living in London, and had an experience where my brain completely overloaded, because of the amount of things I had to do that day.  I was leaving to fly long distance to SA from the UK that evening, I had a client lunch meeting that day, I had get all my work up to date and complete a couple of assignments, and pass on anything that needed managing while I was away to a colleague.  I also participated in being interviewed on a radio show at the time on a weekly basis.  10 years ago, that was a pretty big deal.

Well, I completely forgot about the radio show!  I went out, did my thing and came back, to find my boss blowing smoke out of his ears that he had had to take over on the radio show that day. (this was a task he not wanted any part of – partly because of his nervousness to be on the air)       I was horrified. But I knew what had happened.  I had taken on so much that my brain had shortcircuited!   That was a big lesson for me that day.   Not really in terms of consequences, but more about my own integrity and conscience about the professional I wished be viewed as.  And dealing with the stress of taking so much on, realising that I could only do so much.

Thankfully it wasn’t a life or death situation.   What I really want to draw your attention to, is that its time we looked at our own schedule and see if we need to slow down.  We live in a world where we are technologically able to do so much more, and then we agree to take it all on, when in reality we cannot.

When you are in the unique situation of infertility,  it is at  a time like this, that you really want to be paying attention to this issue.  Its an issue many many women taken on when they are trying to be everything to everyone.  The stress that it brings is enormous, even if it doesn’t feel apparent.    Stress and feeling overwhelmed is our enemy when we are trying to conceive.    The journey of infertility, is difficult enough as it is without having the extra pressure!

So ask yourself these questions?  Am I trying to do too much?    Who can I  ask for some help?    What I am putting in my schedule, that isn’t really that important?   How can I slow down?   And am I present, and paying attention to my own wellbeing, as well as those around me?

The effects of overwhelm and stress and over commitment might be as devastating as losing a child due to a lapse of memory, it might not   –  but,  what is it costing you right now?…..

Maybe being a good mom to the children you already have, maybe your relationship with your spouse, or maybe the possibility of making a family of your own.

I would love any questions, or comments.  If anyone is curious as to how coaching might help in this situation, please go to my details on my contact site to call or email me.

with all things in balance,

Coach Louise

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