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Hi, I’m sending this message as a way to show my endless gratitude towards SHIFRA. I called SHIFRA right when I became pregnant, and I was going through a very, very difficult time in my marriage, and emotionally, and I had some health problems as well.

It was a very tumultuous time in my life [even] without the pregnancy. And I was really upset… when I found out that I was pregnant. And I did not feel like I would be able to take care of my child at all, physically, emotionally, financially. It was very difficult.

I reached out to SHIFRA. Thank goodness. I had heard about the organization through social media and, um, they were really, really calm and sweet and immediately… there was a team literally to help me with every single aspect throughout the pregnancy and the first year [of my baby’s life].

And just knowing that they had my back, with therapy or financially, or sending an organizer to my house to help me keep to a better routine, and [to] keep my house functioning in a better way for me and my other kids and my husband. Whether it was with reaching out to a local network of people who could be on hand locally and sending little gifts for the baby, and really just helping me with every single aspect of my pregnancy and beyond.

And I feel like they saved my life. They saved my baby’s life, and they saved my other children as well, because if not for them, definitely I don’t think I would’ve made it through to the other side.

And that’s what they do for every person who calls upon them.  And they do it with such, I’m not sure how to explain it, but without making me feel like I am constantly taking, even though I am. And even though I was, they made me feel special and good about myself.  Not just like a person who has a really rough situation and a lot of things going badly at the moment, but made me feel like I can do it and I can get through it with their help.

And I had people to lean on. You know, you can’t really just go and tell even your own family that you are not happy about having a child, because that’s something that is very taboo and something that is really just not socially accepted, even though you know, that at the moment, you are not able to care for this baby or that you’re not physically strong enough to… go through pregnancy. That is still not something that you can really talk about.

And with SHIFRA, I was able to have people to speak with that understood me, and that validated me. And that really pulled me upwards, that raised me up, and helped me to get through pregnancy, childbirth, and the entire first year. And because of them, we’re still together today, and I still have my child. Thank God. And I love my baby.

And there really are no words that you can say, or no way to ever repay somebody for doing that for you, because SHIFRA saves lives, not just the baby’s life, but the mother and the other children, and  [the work] they are doing, it is just ripple effect.

And I just want to say that I am forever grateful.

I hope one day that I can pay [it] for[ward] in a big way, but for now, the way that I choose to continue showing my gratitude is by loving my family and keeping all the lessons inside me that [I learned from] SHIFRA…thank you so much.