one week left

one week left. crazy! we have our suitcases almost all packed (or they are full i should say), but there is still so much left over. its so hard to decide what is important to bring, and what we should just cut our losses on and buy later. my dear husband hates letting any item of clothing go, even when he got it, lets say, at his youngest brothers bar-mitzvah (and said brother is now starting an officers course in the army....).

still, i think we are in an ok place. we are mostly packed, i am stocked up on books, my stuff is mostly cleaned out... and i have one more week to tie things together. maya has been great, sleeping in the mornings and letting me work and clean. i am kind of sad that moving across the world will most likely mess up her time zones, and i will lose the blissful 5-7 hours of sleep ive been getting straight a night.

things are falling into place on the israel side too. we have a small house rented, which will be cleared out and inspected by my mother-in-law this week. we have a space for maya in a daycare, starting whenever we want in september (since its run by his aunt its a little more flexible... and gives me the option of leaving her just a couple hours to start, so we can both get used to the seperation). some friends of mine are even going to be in israel then, so i can have a hopefully easier transition... and then the holidays start not too long after that. it will be my first yom kippur in israel, and my first time building our own sukkah!

the anxiety over the flight is still there... my fear of flying, which i thought i had mostly overcome, has come back at the thought of traveling with a baby. i will NOT let my fears affect her, or our trip. i am actually excited about the actual NBN flight, and being on it with so many olim who are going through the same process... its a great idea. one week left in the states!

14 days and counting....

two weeks until our aliyah flight....crazy. we packed this last weekend, and have sofar packed 5 suitcases. in a fit on genius, NBN allows us 6 suitcases of 70 pounds each.... of course our flight TO NY allows us 2 free checked suitcases, $30 for 2 more, and $75 for 2 on top of that.... all limited at 50 pounds each of course, unless we want to pay additional overweight fees.... oh the joy.

so it looks like we will have 6 suitcases to check, 2 carryon suitcases, one backpack/diaper bag, a stroller and a car seat... oh this trip should be fun. once we get to check in in NY it wont be so bad... but its going to be quite a haul. it still doesnt feel real that we are doing this... in the next two weeks i have to finish sorting and throwing everything out here, finish packing that last suitcase (along with last min shopping), say goodbye to everyone... thats going to be the hardest by far.

there is another NBN flight landing this week... and Yehi is sad because apparently Bibi Netanyahu is speaking.... which means he wont be speaking at ours most likely... Bibi is of course Yehis idol, so hes sad about this! i keep telling him we will get someone interesting too, but he would always rather see Bibi. oh well. as of now we have about 22 people coming to see us at our arrival ceremony... i couldnt believe that they are all getting up that early (including one of Yehis grandmothers!). its prob hard to believe that they get to see him "make aliyah" considering some of them did it themselves... and he was born and raised in israel. im happy they are making the effort... and itll be nice to have the support!