Wow - and special shout-out to Graham!

I know it's been over a week since I have posted a new entry, and I am doing what I can to write a few entries to catch up. This entry, however, deals with something that happened just today, and when I think about it, I can't help but laugh first and then think some more.

At synagogue today, during kiddush (the brief period after morning services where light refreshments are served and congregants chat before going to Shabbat lunch), a man came up to me and asked me if I were "the woman who writes the blog about being in Israel"? When I replied that I was, the man told me that he had made aliyah just 2 1/2 weeks ago, and that he had somehow stumbled across my blog. (Seriously, stumbled is the word - I think he said he was looking on google for something about air conditioning.) He told me that when he found my blog, he read it from beginning to end at once and that there was so much in it that resonated with him as he begins his life living in Jerusalem. He thanked me for writing the blog and for offering the right amount of description and feelings to which he could relate but not too much of the gory details. It was clear after he listed similar experiences he has had that he really did read the entire blog!

At this point, we formally introduced ourselves to each other and started talking. His name is Graham from Sydney, Australia. I was very appreciative, certainly, of Graham's kind words and flattered that he had found me, but, of course, I wanted to know how he knew I was the author of the blog. Turns out Graham saw my younger son at synagogue and couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar. Graham kept thinking about it and then realized that the little boy was the one who was milking a cow in the picture from the blog he had been reading. Graham said he thought, "Hey, that's the CK!" and then followed the CK to the woman Graham assumed was the little boy's Mom. How funny is that!?

Graham and I had a lovely conversation, and I enjoyed hearing his story about how he got to Jerusalem. Graham actually only lives about half a block from our dira - we can see each other's dira from our windows. Graham said he knew we lived close because whenever I wrote in the blog about the distances from our dira to where we were going, Graham thought we must be neighbors because the distances were exactly the same from where he lives!

As flattered as I am that Graham found my blog and my perspective helpful and supportive during his first few weeks as an Israeli citizen, I must admit that it also made me think a lot about what Graham has done. I mean, I know our coming to Israel with young children was
not easy and that these past 4 1/2 months have been quite an experience, but Graham has made aliyah, actually picked up all of his possessions, said goodbye to family and friends in Australia, and moved to Israel. Makes me think about what we've been doing in a different light. We're leaving Jerusalem in just over 2 weeks now - almost a shorter time period than a vacation to Israel might be. Honestly, every single day for many weeks now, we think about the fact that we are leaving - what it means, how we feel about it, when will we be back, what it will be like getting on that plane, what it will feel like getting off that plane, etc. I've drafted multiple blog entries in my mind, sure that what I am thinking at that point, is how I am feeling overall. The truth is, that we have many mixed feelings about leaving Israel. Over the next couple of weeks (after I hopefully catch up on the important day-to-day stuff going on), I'll try to write about some of those feelings, in the hopes that it will make me feel better and prepare me for that Turkish Air flight.

(here's the picture from which Graham recognized the CK!)