Building families, one miracle at a time with the JFF

The statistics are compelling Since the Jewish Fertility Foundation was launched in Atlanta in by Elana Frank more than fertility grants loans and discounts have been distributed for a total of million More importantly more than babies have been born in that time there are currently pregnant women and clients and those numbers are changing daily But the impact on the families JFF has served in those nearly years is even more notable Elisheva Engler JFF National Operation Manager who along with her husband helped Frank create JFF noted she has three beautiful reasons to work for JFF Mother of three thanks to IVF or in vitro fertilization Engler commented there was nothing like JFF when she tried to conceive her first two children It was hard to find anyone to walk us through the process she noted There were no sponsorship groups or fertility groups to let you know that somebody out there gets it Now JFF has a great number of encouragement groups including one just for men one for the LGBTQ district one for those using surrogacy an infertility group a pregnancy-after-fertility aid group one associated with JScreen which provides genetic testing and one associated with Sharsheret a nonprofit organization that supports Jewish women diagnosed with breast cancer and ovarian cancer There s also a fertility buddy project that matches up someone going through the challenging process of conception with a veteran of that process According to Rebecca Guttman JFF Atlanta manager the organization just opened a grandparents arm of endorsement groups There are also educational awareness programs Engler who has been employed by JFF for nearly two years emphasized that all assistance and educational services are free and open to everyone going through fertility remedy In order to receive financial help one of the two partners must be Jewish and grants are based on financial qualification Financial advocacy can be essential since one cycle of IVF can cost and fertility treatments insurances are not required to cover fertility rehabilitation so majority of do not according to Guttman Despite being a nurse and working for a hospital at the time Chau Bui and her partner Joshua Kurtz didn t realize that fertility benefits weren t included in her insurance When she went to see a fertility specialist she saw fliers for JFF and forthwith contacted them We thought we knew about the bulk Jewish organizations she commented noting that Kurtz is an Atlanta native Now parents to -month-old Alexandria named after Kurtz s grandfather who was a Holocaust survivor both emphasize how significant the sponsorship groups are People realize they are not alone on this journey Kurtz disclosed They want you to connect that s the big thing even more than money According to Bui At the heart of Judaism is society and this is just that the JFF public As we expand the larger Jewish locality by building families we are simultaneously forming a neighborhood of assistance people in our lives Mother of two daughters Sara who requested anonymity had both children via IVF the first in New York and the second in Atlanta But being Orthodox presented additional challenges to the process After going through years of fertility treatments in New York we had our doctors our organization and our patronage system she stated Once we moved to Atlanta we had to start all over and our first call was to JFF One of these support was religious in nature Orthodox Jewish patients require an observer to be present during egg retrievals sperm collection embryo transfers and in the lab whenever genetic material is involved After the couple moved to Atlanta they struggled to find a clinic that would allow for halachic observation JFF stepped in for us and for so a multitude of other Orthodox couples going through infertility here in Atlanta Sara reported It was incredible They helped us find a clinic that was willing to incorporate this and really helped push the process along Sara later helped connect Guttman with ATIME a New York-based organization that arranges halachic supervision for couples who need it bringing that reservoir to Atlanta JFF realized that the Orthodox district was steadily growing in Atlanta she explained Having this option she added is a competition changer Infertility is such a long and tiring waiting competition there are so countless hoops to jump through declared Sara JFF has been like a shortcut on this journey They really helped us feel seen and supported throughout this process they ve been here all along The post Building families one miracle at a time with the JFF appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta