Don­nie Kan­ter Winokur and her hus­band, Har­vey, a Reform rab­bi, nev­er could have imag­ined the heart-wrench­ing strug­gle that becomes their new real­i­ty after adopt­ing two infants from Rus­sia. Par­ent­hood begins with a She­hecheyanu. Con­ver­sion into Judaism is cel­e­brat­ed with two baby-nam­ing cer­e­monies. Winokur ador­ing­ly describes Iyal and Morasha’s mik­vah and inter­prets a bris for her read­er in a hys­ter­i­cal nar­ra­tive. But then she finds her­self look­ing for God in the bro­ken places of life as her fairy tale col­laps­es under the weight of her son’s bat­tles with fetal alco­hol syn­drome (FAS) and its crush­ing toll on her mar­riage and fam­i­ly. Des­per­ate, she turns to an inno­v­a­tive untest­ed four-pawed solu­tion: a gold­en retriev­er ser­vice dog named Chancer. Her children’s bnei mitz­vah becomes more poignant with Chancer’s pres­ence on the bimah. Chancer’s unique love is what the entire fam­i­ly has need­ed to stay — and grow — togeth­er. With writ­ing that’s some­times heart­break­ing, some­times hilar­i­ous, and always hon­est, Chance: How One Good Boy Saved Anoth­er reveals a jour­ney that will for­ev­er change how you think about hope.