Fresh off our "pilot trip" (basically a two week long road trip through northern Israel looking for a place for our family to live) I thought I'd share my thoughts. Why northern Israel in particular?
To start off, I was never a city girl. I grew up in Rockland and Westchester counties in the Metro New York area - but most definitely suburban - and city life for me was something you do when you're single and then you get out of there once you are ready to settle down. No offense to city slickers, it's just not for me and it's not where I want to raise my kids. Northern Israel is like a different Israel. The people aren't quite as intense and there seems to be a slightly slower pace than in the center.
That said, we were looking for a Dati Leumi community (loosely equates to the American version of Modern Orthodox). We wanted somewhere with learning opportunities for my husband and myself, a warm and welcoming community with a decent number of English speaking families, and a place of beauty. As I've said to many of my friends: if I am going to uproot my family and leave my community and other family members (plus my comfort zone), I want to get up in the morning and say 'ahhhhhhhhh'. We found just the place in Mitzpe Netofa and we could not be more excited.
I will confess that the entire process was very emotional for me and filled with all sorts of ups and downs (but mostly ups). My willingness to move to Israel was something of an informal agreement I made with my husband before agreeing to marry him more than 12 years ago - he's Israeli and always felt he would one day return home, but I can't say I really thought we'd ever do it. At the same time, Judaism and Israel and even Hebrew music when I didn't understand Hebrew at all - always touched me and held a meaning I could not define, particularly coming from a non-observant family. My eyes can well up at the sound of children singing in Hebrew and I can't really say why. So, knowing what a crybaby I am, it's not surprising to learn that I cried quite a bit during our "road trip".
Why was I so emotional? Maybe it was jet lag, maybe it was the enormity of the decisions we had begun to make for ourselves and our 5 children, or maybe there was a deeper spiritual reason fed by the biggest leap of faith I had begun to take since beginning my path towards observance 9 years ago. Whatever the reason, I found it pretty embarassing and was glad that it all seemed to subside once we made living arrangements for our future home, identified schools for all of our children and made important connections with the various agencies we would need to help us with our special needs son when we arrive. I am truly amazed by how willing everyone was to help us so that our son and our family have a smoother transition.
So now we go into high planning gear back at home with 6 months to go before our move - buying a new car we will bring, deciding what else to bring from our home and whether or not to buy appliances from here or purchase them in Israel. We have a lot of work ahead of us but can't wait to have that next "Ahhhhhhh" when we wake up in our new home in Mitzpe Netofa.
