The Big News

For those of you who haven’t yet heard our big news, we are moving back to Boulder in July. The decision has been extremely difficult for us. We are excited to reconnect with our friends and community there, but we are very happy here, and it will be hard to leave. The most painful part …

A Calm Jerusalem

Last weekend, we hosted Kai’s friend from school, who came from Russia to study in Israel without her family. She isn’t Jewish, and had no prior connection to Israel, but the school offered her a significant scholarship, and she wanted an opportunity to leave Russia. It was her first weekend staying with a “host family” …

Sorrow and Joy

For many years, I have felt a tightening in my chest when singing the song that quotes the Talmud stating “מִשֶּׁנִּכְנַס אֲדָר מַרְבִּין בְּשִׂמְחָה” translated as “When Adar enters, joy increases” (Taanit 29a). It feels like a forced command to be happy, yet I can’t hold back the surge of sadness when the new month …

Life through a filter

It occurred to me recently that I might have a subconscious motive for wanting to live abroad in a non-English speaking country. Yes, I enjoy the challenge of learning foreign languages (as evidenced by all my time on Duolingo). My mom loves to tell the story about me when I was young returning home from …

Switzerland to Italy

It has been so long since I’ve used this blog to actually write about travel that I’ve forgotten how important it is to write quickly in order to remember all of the details of the places we visited. We didn’t intend to be this busy during the trip, but I guess the allure of sight …

Trip to Europe

I didn’t write about our travel plans in my last post because I was pretty sure we wouldn’t actually be able to take the trip. The other reason was because I felt ashamed about leaving during a war. It doesn’t really make sense, but I felt like I was abandoning the country by flying out. …

A Strange Limbo

It is difficult to reconcile the calm, quiet atmosphere outside with the reality of the war in Israel. Last Wednesday, I returned to work at Aloney Yitzchak Youth Village, and had the opportunity to connect with some of our newest immigrant students. These are 15 year old kids who arrived in Israel without their parents …

In the midst of darkness

Thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to check on us. We feel safe here in Zichron. Aside from the military aircraft flying overhead throughout the day and night, everything is quiet where we live. Hundreds of families from the north and south of Israel have evacuated to our area. Most people are …

Opening to Trust

My summer trip to the US was like a dream. Spending quality time with friends and family, hiking, swimming, practicing qi gong and yoga, watching musicals and movies, eating delicious food, and generally enjoying the atmosphere. Time flew by, and I didn’t really take the time to sit and process everything that was happening (without …

FOMO

My family makes fun of me about my FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), but it is a real challenge for me. I feel like I truly want to be everywhere at once – not because I need to be where the action is, but because I really want to connect. We hit the ground running …