Advocacy Day 2011 Recap

I am so glad that I made the decision to go to DC for Advocacy Day.  I had such an amazing time.  There were two other participants from Alabama, both in my Resolve Support Group.  We all shared a hotel room to cut down on costs.

We got up super early the day of because we had to catch the Metro into the city (our hotel was in Virginia).  We had breakfast and listened to some speakers and then got some training on what we were going to discuss in our meetings.  Risa Levine gave the keynote speech and it made me cry.  Keiko (from here) posted an excerpt from her speech and I'm going to paste it here.

Wherever you are in this process, I know how hard it is for you to be here. How hard it is for you to identify with this disease that has stripped you of your identity. How hard it is to say "I am infertile".

I want you to think about all of the diseases you've experienced personally or through friends and family. I want you to think about how you or others have been affected by those diseases but how your infertility has redefined how you see yourself and how you relate to every one else in the whole universe. How unfair the unwarranted shame and loneliness has been. I want you to think about your own goals and dreams and self definition and for some of you, the retirement village in Florida that you will never join because you can't compete in the grandchildren wars. I want you to think about all of the times you bought Girl Scout cookies to support your friends' children and all of the times you heard that children are our nation's future. And I want you to believe that YOUR right to have YOUR disease treated so that YOU can have children whose cookies can be bought or whose health care should be provided for are just as important as everyone else's. And then, I want you to walk into Congressional offices today with the confidence that you are justified, no, righteously compelled and duty bound to demand that the treatment and cure of infertility be a priority in our national agenda of providing health care to the people of this country.

Like I said, I was holding back tears at the end.  We next talked about the three key issues we were concentrating on in our meetings.  
1. Infertility is a disease.
2. Infertility Tax Credit.
3. The CDC's National Action Plan for Infertility
You can go to the link above to read more about these.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz came and also gave a speech, but I didn't get to hear it because we had an early appointment.  We took a taxi to Capitol Hill and found Senator Shelby's office for our first appointment.  We were there early, and it turned out to be a good thing because we ran into him as he was leaving his office.

We were able to talk with him for a few minutes and get a picture with him.

We met with his aide who literally looked like a 12 year old boy.  I chose to talk about the IVF tax credit since that's something I could have really used the past two years.  

The next appointment was at Senator Sessions's office.  

I felt like this meeting went much smoother than the first, probably because we were warmed up and not as nervous.  The aide we spoke with was very nice, asked us questions and seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say.  At the end he said he had to commend us, because if he were in our place, he would probably be too embarrassed to do what we were doing.  I think he meant that as a compliment.  :)  

Our next appointment wasn't until that afternoon so we spent some time walking around to Alabama reps' offices and dropping off information flyers.  We ran into the Secret Service outside the White House and convinced them to take a picture with us.  It was hilarious.  They were pretty wary about it at first, but agreed to do it.

Another pic outside the White House:

The last appointment was with my Representative's aide.  I think this meeting was the best of all.  He actually mentioned that he think his parents used fertility treatments in order to have him.  He wasn't sure what though and said that he was going to talk to his mother about it.  He was also very interested in the Tax Credit (we have a sponsor in Congress and are looking for a sponsor in the House).  

All in all, it was a great day.  I've spoken about infertility before, but never to this extent and never in such a public forum.  It was very empowering and affirming.  I feel like I was part of something that can actually make a difference.  

The work isn't done by any means.  I have lots of following up to do.  I also plan on sending a letter to everyone who donated to help make the trip possible for me in order to fill them in on what was accomplished.

Last but not least, I met Trinity in person!  I've read her blog for quite a while now and it was great to actually meet her.  

I've been fired up since I got home from DC.  I would totally work for Resolve (and let them know that while I was there).  This is definitely something that I will do again.