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In a series of articles about the “Efrat” organization, Arutz Sheva presents a number of personal stories and anecdotes relating the group's life-saving activities. This week’s article centers on Inbal, a former model who found spirituality and religion in the unlikely source of a pregnancy.

Inbal told Arutz Sheva about her work as a model immediately upon her release from service in the IDF. "After the army, I began to work as a model. While continuing to work, I was married and gave birth to a baby girl. The further along my pregnancy progressed, the more I began to understand and internalize that the life developing within my body was truly a miracle."

In this way, Inbal grew increasingly more curious about religion and spirituality, and found herself adopting religious beliefs and practices as if they were natural steps for her to take. Inbal abandoned her modeling career, a move her husband could not and would not understand.

"My husband simply could not understand how I threw it all out the window and started to live a ‘primitive lifestyle,’" she explained.

Not long after Inbal’s lifestyle change became a permanent fixture in their lives, the young couple decided to separate and then filed for divorce.

A short while passed, and Inbal found herself walking down the aisle once more, this time marrying a newly religious man. "Everything happened so quickly," Inbal recounted. "It seemed as if we had just married when we welcomed triplets into our home and family."

Yet the young couple’s happy ending seemed far-off, as financial difficulties plagued Inbal and her new husband, upending Inbal’s sense of security and sowing the seeds of doubt into her new-found sense of belief.

"Deep within myself, I began to think that if I would not have abandoned my modeling career, perhaps our financial situation would not have deteriorated so much." The doubts began to overwhelm Inbal, and the more they strengthened, the worse she began to physically feel. Upon recommendation by friends and family, Inbal underwent a series of medical tests, unearthing the shocking diagnosis of uterine cancer. Inbal contemplated surgically removing her uterus, but immediately backtracked, knowing at once that it was a sign from the heavens.

"I was in a state of crisis. I knew that I needed to strengthen in my beliefs once more if I wished to ever rise from the low, downtrodden place I was currently in." She went through a difficult period of medical treatments, until she thankfully found herself in remission.

A few years later, at the age of 45, Inbal found herself expecting once more, after 13 years without becoming pregnant. "I was ecstatic," she said. "I felt that G-d was signaling to me that my repentance had been accepted with mercy. If I would have, heaven forbid, had my uterus removed, I would never have merited bringing another child into this world."

Her joy was short lived however, as Inbal’s doctors unanimously encouraged for her to terminate the pregnancy, due to her age and previous battle with cancer. "I did not know how to take in what they were telling me," Inbal remembered. "On the one hand, I was happy. On the other hand, I was full of fear."

Inbal was advised to consult with members of the “Efrat” organization. A volunteer called Inbal the very next day and guided her throughout he pregnancy, which encouraged Inbal and strengthened her in times of temporary crisis.

"The fact that I had who I could pick up the phone and call, even cry to when I felt the need, provided a sense of support that could never be adequately described in words."

Following the birth, Efrat provided Inbal and her family with all the baby gear they could possibly need. Today, Inbal is proudly able to declare that she is happy and strong, due to the support received from the Efrat organization in her time of need.