Rav Aharon Yosef Horonchik, the Radoshitzer Rebbe, is also the guardian angel for hundreds of couples going through their own challenging journeys to parenthood
“Everyone’s looking at me,” Devorah complained. “Wherever I go, I feel people’s eyes examining me to see if anything is ‘on the way’ “
Why do you make it harder for me — and for you?
Mussaf starts, the table is full, yet I feel so alone. The room has been cleansed of a whole decade of women, the twenty-pluses.
What they were saying, basically, was that no one could ever love me because I was fat. I can’t even begin to describe how painful that was. And that was before I even hit my teens
The phone call they’ve been waiting for — a baby available for adoption — might sound like the end of a happily-ever-after tale, but it belies all the turmoil that came before. Still, parents who’ve managed to navigate the rigorous social services evaluations that often overlap with the disappointment of another failed treatment are finally reaping the rewards.
On the outside, I looked like a typical obese woman — someone who people assumed just couldn’t control herself. Inside, I was a woman struggling with an incurable disorder and infertility. And while it was true I was overeating, nobody knew about my out-of-whack endocrine system and how it was creating chaos in my body.
Some of these women have been blessed with a child, or two, or more. But the blessing has slipped from their grasp, and they grapple with the challenges of secondary infertility. A glimpse at the experience.
Sharon Lobaton spent 27 years waiting, praying, hoping for a child. At the age of 52, she received the ultimate consolation. After sowing with tears, she finally reaped the joyous dividends — her newborn son, cradled in her arms.
Dr. Baruch Brooks, recently retired halachic supervisor and embryologist at Shaare Zedek Hospital’s IVF unit, and scientific director of Zir Chemed, is the first address for fertility issues in the Orthodox world. A scientist and Torah scholar, he has merited to use his wisdom in Torah and science to bring the joy of a child’s laugh into the silent lives of hundreds of couples.