double-dog-doctor

I agree 100% with this. The rules exist for a reason. Let this person enjoy the rest of their lives without feeling obligated to provide a service to OP.

Yeah, something about this is really striking the wrong chord with me. Everything from OP's username ("momknowsbest"??) to her statements that imply that she is the donor, not her son, to her blatant disregard for established and codified process.

This is not healthy. OP needs help, and it's not going to come in the form of her son's heartbeat in a stranger's body.

What are you distributing to people who go to your book signings? Did you ever find an item that can compete with individually packaged pain relief tablets?

I would personally like to suggest clear plastic rain ponchos.

I'm in Indonesia right now, and honestly? It sounds like how a lot of people here live. If I may: "cultures" like Indonesian culture (which is highly varied, of course, depending on region, income, faith, etc.) are very much a "hang-out" culture. Many people don't have constant access to internet. Many rely on government power which is...iffy in many regions. So a lot of time? You work. You come home. You eat. You hang out. There's a lot of downtime. So you hang out. You shoot the shit. You chill out with your neighbors.

This, at least in Indonesia--which has extraordinarily high levels of corruption and bureaucracy--translates to work, too. If you go somewhere with a task to accomplish, such as, say: a visa, expect to hang out a lot. Because Indonesians are used to just hanging out. You sit outside--hang out. You sit with your neighbors and chat--hang out. Someone pulls out a guitar and a weird percussion string instrument and cap tikus--hang out.

I've been in Indonesia for three weeks, and it is a very chill existence. Many of the people I've spoken to a very content with their lives: they're happy with their families, their jobs, their homes, how much they make. They aspire to keep everything the same. But with this chill existence also comes what Westerners would view as poverty. Lack of clean water, inconsistent power, a doctor that only comes once a month, children with perpetual coughs, a demand for English that isn't met, etc.

They do seem very content with what I view as a very relaxed, chill existence--but as a Western researcher looking in on their lives, I ask myself: Are these things worth the chill lifestyle? And is "fixing" these things removing that happiness?

Many apologies for the novel. Just observations from a similar lens as this Peace Corps volunteer.

Even in a large city, the Orthodox community is often quite small and interconnected. Even if there are other synagogues he may go to, his reputation may proceed him.