From Dawn Davenport, adoption expert and founder of “Creating a Family”:
Hi all. Tomorrow’s Creating a Family show, Aug.13, will be on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and my guest will be Dr. Marcelle Cedars, director of the University of California at San Francisco Center for Reproductive Health. Dr. Cedars specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of PCOS. As always, the show is live from 12-1 Eastern Time, but you can listen to it anytime after it airs at the radio page of http://www.creatingafamily.com (click on radio page, then click on the play button) or download it as a free podcast from iTunes. You can call in with questions during the show (347/215-8510) or email them to me in advance at dawn @creatingafamily.com (delete space).
Please let other forums that might be interested in this topic know about the show. We rely on word-of-mouth to spread the news. Thanks.
I have added a number of questions to the Adoption Frequently Unasked Questions page, including questions about adopting from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. We are having a problem with adding too much data to that page, but the problem doesn’t affect the new questions just added.
Dawn
Life on the Road Less Traveled 
Hi Heidi! I am new to your site and have found it very informative! My husband and I are finishing up our foster care licesning, and are very excited about that. I have PCOS and have been listening to this link and am wondering about your view regarding IVF, artificial insemination, etc. I guess I am just curious since I found your website being advertised on CAtholic Exchange. When I am looking over the Creating a family website, it appears as though they do promote IVF, etc., as well as adoption, fostering and so on. I do not want to come across as judgement, just curious.
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Dear Kim: Thanks for taking the time to write! Your comment gives me a great idea for a future article, and also helps me clarify the purpose of the blogroll on the EMN.
Because the Church teaches that the dignity of a child is best protected when he is both conceived and raised in the loving embrace of a couple married for life, Catholic couples are obliged not to resort to IVF. There are a number of good reasons for this … Many, many children have been conceived and discarded using this method. While groups like “Snowflake” have tried to rescue these babies by having them adopted by other couples, there are many ethicists who believe that this merely compounds the original error.
My husband and I also made a deliberate choice not to pursue assisted reproductive methods such as IVF because we believe children are a gift, not a right. We believe in a Father who gives good things to His children … and we also knew that there are many children all over the world who are longing for the gift of family. For us, a genetic match was simply not essential. And indeed God brought our children to us when the time was right.
It’s important to keep in mind where a particular blog is listed in the blogroll — “Creating Family” is under adoption/foster-adoption, not “fertility” (although this particular article on PCOS was fertility-related and tagged as such). I placed Dawn on the blogroll because of her insight on adoption — especially trans-racial adoption. As always, it’s important to read with discernment.
Not all EMs are Catholic — and even those who are do not always see the wisdom behind Church teachings until they are explained in a way they can hear and understand. My goal with EMN is to offer women who are struggling to embrace their vocation as mothers articles and other resources that can help them.
Speaking truth to a grieving heart is both a difficult and necessary thing at times — and I’m so grateful that you raised this important issue, because it is one I need to address.
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Thanks for the reply, Heidi. My husband and I feel the same way about IVF and that children are a gift. We feel that is God’s great wisdom, there is a reason for our struggle and while we don’t always accept it with open arms, it is ours, and HIS, to bear.
I do appeciate the PCOS radio link as it did inform of things I was not aware regarding the disease and I do see now what you mean by the listing in the blogroll. I agree it is often difficult to explain to non-Catholics the Church view on assisted fertility methods. I have a freind who wants to debate this often. 🙂
Thanks you for your time and your reply!!!
Kim
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