September 11th, Tu B’Shvat, a missed Kiddush, our English Anniversary, our son in a coma, and today naming our Daughter Emuna

Today, on Shabbos Parshas Yisro, we named our daughter Emuna
(Faith in G-D in English), but naming our daughter Emuna has been a work in progress
for the last 7 years since September 11^th 2001.

On September 11^th 2001 the worst terrorist attack
in Unites States history occurred. That attack was a wake up call to my wife
and I, and a reminder of the promise I made my wife 10 years ago today when we
got married that we would move to Israel within 3 years of being married. (Today,
February 14^th 2009 is our English anniversary) Before September 11^th
my mind was far away from making that move, but after 9/11 we heard loud and
clear G-Ds message. It was time to come home.

On Tu B’Shvat 2002 I came back from Shul to find my wife
smiling. It was at that moment that I found out that we would be expecting our
second child. Literally just a few minutes later as we were celebrating the good
news the phone rang. It was the Israeli Consulate in New York calling to tell
us that we were accepted to make Aliyah! Tu B’Shvat was indeed a very good day
for us.

We thought there would be tens of thousands of other
American Jews making Aliyah that year, but unfortunately there were only
hundreds. The good news is that a revolution in American Jews moving to Israel began
and my expecting wife and our first daughter Chaya Rochel and I were on the
very first Nefesh B’Nefesh flight.

September 11^th 2002. Exactly a year later our
first son, Moishy, was born in the holy city of Jerusalem. We heard G-D’s
message and he sent us our reward. He was the first Nefesh B'Nefesh baby!

Now let’s speed it up a bit to 4 years later when our third
child, Shira Etya, was born on the 10^th of Shvat (missing Tu B’Shvat
by 5 days). As with the birth of any child it was a tremendous simcha for us.
My brother Howie and his wife flew in to celebrate with us. My wife was in the
hospital for 2 days and came home on Friday with our newest package. It was too
close to Shabbos to make a Kiddush that Shabbos so we made it for the following
Shabbos on Parshas Yisro. Little did we know at the time that my wife and I
would not be attending the Kiddush, but would be spending that Shabbos back in
the hospital.

Thursday morning we noticed that Moishy, who was now 2 years
old, wasn’t feeling that well, but we really started to get nervous when he
started throwing up bile. So we took him (and of course Shira who was just 8
days old) to the doctor. When the doctor saw him and saw the bile he said that
we should immediately take him to the emergency room.

So we took him to the emergency room at Hadassa Ein Kerem
and so began what would be the biggest test of Emuna for my wife and I. It is a
long story, but I will try to make it brief. After being in the Emergency room
for about 10 hours he was considered in stable condition but would be there for
at least one night and they had no idea what was wrong with him. So I was going
to go home with my wife for a couple of hours and get changed and get the
things we needed. Aleeza, one of Moishy’s teachers was going to stay with him.

At this point I should mention that Moishy was born with
cerebral palsy and something called microsiphyllis. He is a special needs child
and for the last 4 years has been attending a special needs school in Jerusalem
called Gan Meshy. Aleeza was one of the assistants in Moishy’s class and was
very close with him.

So I went to get the car and the plan was to drive to the
front of the hospital and pick up my wife, but when I got there my wife wasn’t
there, but Aleeza was. I said where is my wife and she told me that something
happened and I should go in. So I left Aleeza to repark the car and I ran into
the emergency room. In the few minutes that I was gone Moishy had a seizure.
When I got there they had sedated him and were monitoring him. This was about
10pm. I was watching Moishy at that point and my wife was with the newborn in
the waiting area since she could not be in the emergency room for obvious
reasons. At around  11pm I saw that
Moishy was having trouble breathing, it seemed that he was gasping for air. So
I told one of the nurses and the next thing you knew there was about 6 doctors
and nurses surrounding Moishy. They last thing I saw was them cutting open his
shirt and putting some sort of breathing mechanism in his mouth and then they
pushed me and my wife away and closed the curtains.

They then moved him from the emergency room to the pediatric
ICU and we weren’t able to see him until about 2am. When we did they told us
that he was in serious but stable condition and that he was not breathing on
his own. He had so many tubes and wires around him that it was heart breaking
to look at and we still did not know what was wrong with him.

We realized that we would be spending Shabbos in the
hospital and that we would be missing our daughters Kiddush. Early Shabbos
morning they did a Spinal Tap. At around 11:00am Shabbos morning Parshas Yisro
2005 the head of the hospital came to tell us the dreaded news. Moishy had contracted
bacterial meningitis and one of the worse strains of it. He was in a coma and
they did not know if he would come out and even if he did, they could not
guarantee that he would not come out as a vegetable. They said they were not
keeping him alive and so there was a chance he could come out. He also said
that he discussed it with the other head of the Childrens hospital and they
said that in all their years of being doctors they never ever heard of a case
of a child with Crebral Palsy also getting bacterial meningitis.

When the doctor left we were faced with the biggest test of
Emuna of our lives. But we discussed it and decided that since it could go
either way, the descision in Shamayim was not yet made, but since it was
Shabbos we would put our Emuna in Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu and celebrate Shabbos. We
would not cry and we would sing zmeros during the meal. We understood that
Hashem was totally in charge and that he would heal our son.

Motzei Shabbos the word spread quickly and throughout the
world people were saying Tehillim for Moishy. I went to my Rebbe and he told me
that Hashem loves to make deals and that we should come up with a list of
things how we would change if Moishy’s life would be spared. So after mid-night
when I came back from my Rebbe I sat down with my wife and we wrote down the
changes we would make if Moishy came out of the situation without a scratch.

The next day on Sunday towards evening they told us that he
started breathing on his own. By Monday they took out the breathing tubes. On
Tuesday he lifted his hand, on Wednesday he smiled. After two weeks in the
hospital Moishy came home without a scratch. It was an open miracle! The
doctors said they had never seen anything like it. Even an older healthy person
that gets this strain of bacterial meningitis comes out with some sort of
scratch. Seizures are very common as well as other side effects, but not a
little two year old boy with CP names Moishy who with the tremendous mercy from
Hashem and lots of Emuna from his parents, came home without any effects.

Tu B’Shvat 2009. Our fifth child, a beautiful little girl is
born to us in the holy city of Jerusalem.

Today, Shabbos morning Parshas Yisro, 4 years to the hour
from when we put our Emuna in Hashem, we named our daughter Emuna. We finally
had the Kiddush.

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