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