Tuesday, June 30, 2009

flight approval

well, we got an email saying that we have been approved for an NBN flight in August, all 3 of us! we got a specific date, but are still considering the flight after. its great to hear that all three of us have been approved, pending on my visa and Maya's passports. such a big step in the right direction.

my inlaws (and other family) have been looking for an apartment for us. once again, this process is so much easier with an israeli husband, and family there to help. im a little nervous getting a place without having seen it, but it is only renting. we dont need much space for now, but we would like it to be within walking distance of his family, for shabbat.

we have already signed Maya up for daycare, run by his aunt, starting in september or october. I hope to start ulpan then, which will last most of the day. things are moving, but its still kinda crazy to me that we will be there in less than two months.... and things are falling into place, slowly..

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

visas and passports

we have been waiting for Maya's birth certificate, so we could apply for her passports, it took a month, but they finally came in. so we headed up to the israeli consulate in the city to get her passport paperwork in, and to get my aliyah visa. of course nothing is ever as simple as it seems. we had to, in order, go to the Jewish Agency to get signed paperwork, then to the state of california building to get her birth certificated appostilled, then to the Israeli consulate. of course the israeli consulate closes at 1pm, and we arent THAT close to city... so it required two days of running around.

the first issue was my name, which seems to be consistently spelled wrong, no matter how many times we correct the paperwork. then we headed to the consulate... which is always an experience in itself. the passport paperwork was easy... our passports, pictures of her (which took forever to get) and the paperwork... and shes on her way to being registered as an Israeli! then my paperwork...

they had asked for three copies of everything... which i had organized into three packets. when I handed it to the woman she yelled at me for not having it organized right... she handed it back and made me separate it out into the three copies of every paper with each other... when i handed it back she complained again, then resorted it into the way I had originally. fun. she kept saying she shouldnt be doing this... luckily y was there to back me up and complain right back.

all in all they say we should get both my visa and her passport in three weeks. we also sent in the paperwork for her american passport, which should be in in three weeks. so shell be an international citizen, and we will be ready for our aliyah. we are debating on flight dates, but sometime mid august. step by step

Thursday, June 11, 2009

shipping off

well, for better or worse a large chunk of our worldly possessions were packed up yesterday to begin their ~2 month journey to Israel. we only rented one lift, so we were hard pressed to make some tough decisions on what we really wanted/needed to bring with us. I ended up with only 7 boxes of books...

the whole experience was a little crazy. i guess we are pretty organized, because for the most part we had already packed up our belongings. it was important to me to know where everything was, and thats why i wanted to do it ourselves. the moving company came, and moved all of our boxes 9and our mattress) into a box. we came pretty close to fitting everything, but ended up having to leave 3 kitchen boxes and a set of dishes behind. not too bad for packing up my whole life. There are other things we could have left, but i guess we will see what we really need once we get there.

now, in all honesty we have been living without most of this stuff for over a year (or more in some cases). i guess that means that most of it is not really 'needed',but a lot of it I was just not willing to let go...hence the 7 boxes of books (and believe me, thats a LOT less than I started with). i know you can get everything in israel(or have someone bring it in), but its not always the same.

so thats a major step down. this week we hope to get babys birth certificate so we can get her passports, and get to the next major step... our official flight date. for now everything is unofficial, and i would like to get things solidified a little... never a dull moment here...

Sunday, June 7, 2009

israel in the gardens

every year in SF, the jewish groups put on "Israel in the Gardens". its a pretty impressive grouping of all the different jewish and pro-israel groups, plus music, food and a shuk. its usually a lot of fun, and I always run into a ton of people from my past. we had been debating on if we should this year or not, being that the baby is all of two weeks old. we got an email a couple weeks ago saying they were having a little gathering for all new olim, so we decided to head up there and meet some others.

i dont know why the Jewish Agency doesnt do more meet and greets with olim. it would be nice to get know others from this area who are doing the same trip, and others who might be on our flight, or moving to a similar area (and im sure so many of them are moving to the south...). about 15 olim showed up, and I knew one family... but sadly there wasnt much time to talk with the others. we went up on the main stage and were introduced, and got to shake hands with the consul general of the pacific northwest. all very exciting. i had a moment of "what in the world are we doing with an infant???"... but im sure ill have more of those moments to come.

aliyah feels so distant that when I am confronted with it, I still feel shocked. I have always been a traveler, and i am excited to be going to live abroad. i still worry about my family, and being so far from them, and I am sure I always will. at least in this day and age travel is easier, plus skype and email and everything else... its not the same, but its a whole lot better than 100 years ago. for now we are taking each day at a time.

my inlaws are coming into town next week, and we should be sending out our shipping container by the end of the month... step by step we go