It was clear that both of these Thinking/Trying women have strong initiative, and the time and inclination to keep conversation happening in our strong Atlanta market, where we hosted an event in 2009. As part of our ongoing series of short profiles of Choice Mom coordinators in particular cities, here is how Jessica describes her journey so far:

"I began thinking about the Choice Mom path when I was 26 years old. At the time I was looking into adoption. I started seriously thinking on it at 28 and found the ChoiceMoms.org group and the Single Mothers by Choice group. As I researched assisted donor insemination, I made a decision to go that route. I never even thought about ADI as a possibility until I found these groups. Hopefully my finances will be in order and I can start inseminations March 2012. By then I will be 30.

The biggest hurdle for me has been finances. I want to make sure I have savings, plus trying-to-conceive (TTC) money before I get started.

One piece of advice for others: find other women on this path. Meet local women if you can, travel to a gathering if not. If you can't find people to meet face to face, get involved online. Make connections. It's an amazing thing to find others who are in the same place you are, and even more amazing to meet those that have been here before you. To see the mothers with their children makes it all seem real.

I am helping the Choice Mom community be more interactive. I will particularly help women in Atlanta find face-to-face support, and offer each other referrals to doctors and other professionals that are Choice Mom-friendly. It's important for us to share our resources and experiences with each other."

Jessica is currently focusing efforts on making better use of our new Ning communication tool. If you are interested in helping us develop this regionalized group discussion (it's like a private, invitation-only Facebook, with local group discussions that can include images, personal blogs and forums for making referrals), let me know at info @ choicemoms.org. We currently have Ning groups set up for Atlanta (Jessica, Cyndi), Toronto, Philadelphia (Candice, Diane), United Kingdom (Emily), North Carolina (Cathi, Leigh), Los Angeles, Boston, Texas (Austin/Jordana), Chicago (Lisa). You need an invitation code to join these groups, to keep it private, so send a request to info @ choicemoms.org, including which city group you want to join (or form), and after we verify you are indeed on the Choice Mom path, we will get you on board.

Use these Ning forums to contribute your insights to local women about service providers you would highly recommend (childcare, fertility, holistic, handymen, financial planners, estate planners, etc.). We will gather those into e-guides we are creating for those cities. Once we get this smaller number of groups created, we will do them for other cities.