This week I want to start off with some things that inspired me. I was deeply moved by Oprah’s “Teach a Girl Campaign”. You want to do something great this holiday season? Take just a few minutes and read what you can do with just a few dollars. Learn how a Microloan can change the life of a woman, her family and her community. Do you want to really get it? Do you want to be compelled to take out your checkbook in a time when none of us have loads of money? I dare you. Watch this video “The Girl Effect” This is something we all can do. It’s so simple and amazing. Remember that girls “Are Half The Sky” and that we can all turn “oppression into opportunity” for women around the world.

I was also touched and inspired by Meredith Baxter who went on the Today Show with an unusually compassionate Matt Lauer, and told the world she is a lesbian. Yeah, yeah so what you may say? Well, for some people coming out is still very edgy stuff. And there Meredith was all – vulnerable looking sitting there on live national television. She was obviously nervous sharing a part of herself that she had kept in her own world – not hidden she explains, but not formally “out” in the media. It took courage to share what was always private not secret with the world. Brava!

I was stunned by news out of Germany in the fertility world last week. Thank you Andy Vorzimer who highlighted this important legal ruling that could really shake up the world of “Cross Border Fertility Care”in his blog “The Spin Doctor”. Check out his entry on the German high court finding surrogacy immoral and not allowing the entry of any child born through surrogacy.

That is really amazing, and I can’t help but wonder what this will mean in terms of all things “fertility tourism”. What if the courts find compensating egg donors immoral? Will these children be barred entry into their intended parents country of origin? I didn’t know that children conceived in any matter at all could be consider immoral. Did you?

And did you catch the newly revamped “Journey to The Crib Series” with Dr David Kreiner and me (Pamela Madsen)? I love the new series – the videos are great – and Dr. Kreiner and I talk about everything from Micro IVF to Single Embryo Transfer.

And then there were the things that were hitting the media that chilled me. One is this new fad called “Sexting”. You have probably heard about it or even done it. The senior set are apparently “Sexting” to spice thing up, and are happy to talk about it on national television. But kids are at it too – often with unseen consequences. You see – there are actually cruel people out there that can take information and use it to hurt people. It is the kind of viciousness that you might expect from bullies in the school yard – but it can actually end lives.

So talk to your kids – and if you are playing with sexy pictures yourself – I hope that you don’t know any social paths who get their kick out of hurting people. They are out there – trust me.