Yom Ha'atzmaut

Rich and I sit here now sunburned, dirty, exhausted and incredibly happy. We just put the kids to bed after a day that started at 7:30am and just now ended at 8:30pm. We started with friends near the Dead Sea and ended with friends in Alon Shvut, Gush Etzion for a bbq.

What can I say. Nothing that would be able to capture the feeling of today.

We planned with friends from Ma'aleh Adumim (also originally from the Baltimore/ Silver Spring area who've been here 3 yrs or so) to get together at the same park near the Dead Sea (Tzukim) that we went to with the kids and our neighbors on Chol Ha'Moed. We thought if we got an early start we would beat traffic and crowds. We arrived at about 9:30 and were met by a fairly large crowd at the park already.

People know how to do park-outings here. They do not take a cooler with food and some towels like those of us who don't know any better.

No- they bring the bbq's, at least 2 huge coolers, 3 additional boxes filled with drinks and more food, chairs, tablecloths, pots and pans in some cases, a tent, a boom-box, games and balls, towels, robes, and I'm sure a lot more that I didn't even see. They come with the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. And they take up a lot of room.

Our friends brought a tent and we brought a lot of food between us, so we were half-way there, anyhow.

The kids, of course, had fun in the pools and it was nice relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous view of the Dead Sea and the Jordanian mountains.

We get such a kick out of traveling a half hour to get to these gorgeous places. What a difference from Baltimore where we would travel a half hour to get to Sears! Given, there are parks in the Baltimore area, and given, we didn't venture out to them very often, but somehow, it's different here.

Here, it's not just venturing out and packing everyone up and dragging the kids around to nice, pretty places like in the States. Here, you pack everyone up and and you go places that make your heart swell. You feel something real...
and here is where my words fail me.
(and where you must forgive my raving a bit)
How to describe?
It's like discovering something about someone you love that you never knew before...that makes you swoon and love them more.

Sitting here, thinking about our day...which was fun but not extraordinary in any way, feels so unreal. Just knowing that we are here in Israel...on Yom Ha'atzmaut... and we are a part of this country, the land, the people- it's completely overwhelming. To think of the sacrifices people made for us to be able to be here and walk on this ground...To think of the hundreds of years we have been pining and wishing for the chance to live here- and poof- here we are.

Little ol' me- living a dream that has eluded so many for so many yrs.
I don't know what we did to deserve it, but I thank G-d for the chance He's giving us. And I thank G-d we were able to know it was a chance we had to take.