I know so many people, myself included, who have missed out on so many things these past months because of the threat of the coronavirus. Family members and friends who couldn’t make it to a wedding, a bar or bat mitzvah, an engagement party, a graduation—the celebration of huge steps in a person’s life. I know family and friends (myself included) who were not able to accompany family members or friends as they sat alone in mourning.

So many events in our lives that just sixIt’s been hard for everyone months or a year ago, we said, “Of course, I’ll be there!” And we weren’t. We couldn’t be.

It’s been hard for everyone.

But here’s a story with a different twist.

I have a client who was pregnant with her second child. She and her husband live in Jerusalem without any other family in Israel. Her first child, now 14 months old, was born a week before his due date. As this woman entered her ninth month, she felt that her new baby, too, would be born early.

She had not had an easy pregnancy. For different medical reasons, it had been extremely difficult from nearly the beginning. I spoke with her frequently, trying as best as I could to give her encouragement, “You are getting closer!” “You made it one more week!” “Hang in there, you are amazing!”

At last, she reached her ninth month and finally was just about to start her 38th week when her husband came home with the news that his coworker was diagnosed with COVID-19. He tested for the virus, and the test came back positive. My client was now in week 38—two weeks before her due date. Her husband went into quarantine. She and her son tested negative, but they, too, had to go into quarantine for two weeks. Her husband was alone in one room; she and their child in another.

The clock ticked, and the pages turned on the calendar.

According to the rules from Israel’s Ministry of Health and from the hospital, if this woman went into labor during those two weeks of quarantine, she would have to go to the hospital alone in a special ambulance prepared for quarantine. She would have to go without her husband, without me, without anyone.

This news wasn’t easy ... to birth a new baby without a familiar face.

Every day, I texted or phoned her, trying to support her. I kept telling her, “Take it one day at a time ... Anything can happen ... Just be in the moment ... Remember, Yeshuat Hashem k’heref ayin, “the salvation of G‑d can be as quick as the blink of an eye.”1

What could she do? Just accept the situation.

And she did; she accepted it like a true hero. It was like a roller-coaster ride. I was nervous for her and continued to pray, “Please G‑d, let her be healthy, let the baby be healthy, let it be born at the right time, and let me be there!”

Week 39 came closer. It passed without labor.

We counted down to the day when her quarantine would be over. Her husband, who was also in quarantine, felt fine, thank G‑d.

It was week 39, plus six days, on the 13th day of her quarantine with only one more day to go. Her husband received a note from his doctor that the next day he could go out of quarantine. Yeshuat Hashem k’heref ayin. “The salvation of G‑d is like the blink of an eye.”

The next day, on the day when they wereThere was some confusion when we got there reunited as a family, her labor started. This was actually the day the baby was due. It was like a dream! The three of us went to the hospital together.

There was some confusion when we got there. We were asked if anyone had been in quarantine. We answered “yes,” and before we could properly explain, they whisked all three of us into isolation! It’s a long story about what happened next, but for the labor and birth, I merited to help my client bring her precious daughter into the world. With all that had happened, unbelievably, mother, father and doula were at the birth together.

I look around at our world and think that the impossible has happened. Who would have dreamed of all this—work and school being closed, weddings with just a few people? Trips and events being canceled, and synagogues not holding services?

But then I look again, and I see how much has still happened. How many ways G‑d has for doing things, ways that we could never have imagined.

More than anything from this story, I learned the importance of being in the moment, and to keep praying and never lose hope. At any moment, even when the chances seem so slim or impossible, G‑d can make anything happen.