Some thoughts about moving

Since leaving home for college at 18, I have moved several times.  I went to college in Claremont, then I moved to Irvine for a year, then I lived in the Pico Robertson neighborhood for about 5 years, where I met my husband, got married, and had a baby. 

When our oldest son was 2, we decided we should look at other communities around the US.  We visited Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Boca Raton.  They were all nice places...but then we visited Denver.  Denver had great weather, and a nice community, and several schools, and an eruv...so we picked up and moved!  That was 13 years ago.  We had four more babies in Denver, made some really great friends, and even convinced a few friends to join us.

Through all these moves, I never really felt like I had to say goodbye to these places. I have gone back to visit San Francisco, Novato, Claremont, Irvine, and LA lots of times since each move. We have family in those places, and they are all pretty close to each other in the grand scheme of things.  But leaving Denver feels different.  I don't know when we will ever go back there.  We may have to go when and if we sell our house, but apart from that I can't imagine coming back to Denver. We will miss the people there, of course, but we will see many of them in Israel.  If we are able to come back to the US for a visit, there is no doubt that we will be in the California, where all the grandparents live.

So, for the first time in my life, I am really saying goodbye to a city that I might never see again.  It is possible that I will need to come to Denver for work, or maybe I will come to Denver for the house sale, but I am not counting on that. 

So, to all the Denver people...It's been great.  Denver is a wonderful community.  It has its struggles, like all small communities (not that large communities don't have struggles, they are just different) and Denver will figure it out.  I know it feels like there is an exodus going on right now, but that won't last forever.  New people will move in and everything will get stronger.

I hope you will all keep in touch.  Even though I am not a native, I have 4 Denver native children!  You will always be part of our heart.  Denver helped me grow in many different ways.  I am in no way the same person now that I was when we moved all those years ago. I've learned a lot.  So thank you all.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, we are on the plane now heading to Los Angeles. We said goodbye to great friends, our house, our cars and our coworkers. Of course, moving is horrible, so I was up very late finishing the packing and cleaning.

I'm so lucky to have some amazing friends. So many people came to say goodbye. Rosie came and gave all the kids hair cuts

and cut my wig (which I've been meaning to do for 11 months!). Two amazing women stayed with me until after midnight, packing like champs, and cleaning up the house. I can't express how much their help means to me.We all got up at 3:00 AM to get ready to leave for the airport at 3:30. We had one van stuffed with suitcases, Daniel's car was stuffed with suitcases, and we had another van to get me and the kids to the airport.

When I checked 11 bags and three booster seats this morning at sky cap, they felt so bad for me. Even though a few were over weight, they let it slide. I didn't even have to cry.

The security line was longer than I have ever seen in Denver. The line ended up only taking about 34 minutes to get through and the line to the sky cap took about thirty minutes, so I was glad we got there two hours early.

Security, of course, was a nightmare. The kids had tons of snacks so they had to check all the food one by one. No liquids but whatever. I feel much safer that they inspected my chocolate covered pretzels.

Finally that ordeal was over and we headed down the escalator...only to find that Rivka left her suitcase at security. So I ran up the down escalator and retrieved her bag.

We got on the train two minutes later, yay! Then we almost got trapped in the train when the doors closed aggressively fast. But we were able to get out.

Even though we got to the gate only as they began boarding, we were able to all sit together. We were B5-10, but with security so crazy, most of the A people weren't there to board. Yay!

Sima almost had a panic attack because she thought she lost her kindle, but it was in her backpack the whole time. We were all super tired and edgy.

So we finally sit down, we are about to take off, and the pilot comes on the intercom. Apparently, the co-captain's headset wasn't working. We waited over an hour for that to get sorted out. Happily, we were flying Southwest, so they let us off the plane to go to the bathroom, which was a real life-saver for the kids. Of course, they told the kids to hurry because when they were ready to take off, they would leave, whether we were there or not. Well, naturally, that made Yaakov not even want to use the bathroom. I was able to convince him that we would be fast enough and there was nothing to worry about. 

After all this fun, starting at 3:00AM, we finally took off at 7:30 Denver time. We arrived in LA at around 8:30 LA time. Daniel's dad picked us up in a big pickup truck he rented from Home Depot. It was totally brilliant, since it was able to hold all 11 checked bags and the many, many carryons and backpacks. Daniel's mom came with her car and took all the little kids.

Everyone is super tired now, since no one has slept in ages. We are going to the beach in a few minutes. Daniel is making great time on his drive and he should be arriving today by 8! I was able to get about 5 hours of work in, so that was great. Plus, we got our visas! We are officially ready to go. We have all the paperwork. Yes, they did misspell our names, and amazingly, the shaliach noticed when she picked them up from the embassy, and even more miraculously, she was able to get them corrected on the spot!

Good bye Denver, hello LA!

It's really getting real!

We are leaving Denver in less than 24 hours!  I am going to my office for the last time.  Since yesterday was Tisha B'Av, we couldn't do too much. Mostly just throwing stuff away and having people come over to pick up stuff.  We have now, officially, gotten rid of all our furniture!  It's been sad saying goodbye to good friends and to the community where we have lived for over 13 years.

Four of our five kids were born here, they have all started school here, and we have great memories that are all based in Denver.  It's such a friendly, warm community.  The bright side is that we will all meet again in Israel!  A friend pointed something out to me that really helps me feel better.  She said, "If you were moving to Cleveland or Baltimore, I don't know when I'd see you again.  I am unlikely to visit those cities.  But everyone ends up in Israel eventually.  Whether for a family simcha or for a vacation, or to make aliya."  This thought has really helped me.  Therefore, I'm not saying goodbye to anyone.  Rather I am saying "see you later!"

It is harder seeing my kids say goodbye to their friends.  My eight year old is taking it especially hard.  He is very nervous about making new friends. He doesn't want to leave his best friend.  He doesn't want to forget him!  And at his age it is hard to stay in touch.  My 12 year old and my 15 year old will stay in touch with their friends.  My 9 year old may or may not stay in touch, but she is a social butterfly and makes new friends easily, so she is not particularly worried about that.  My five year old is too young to worry and he doesn't have particularly close friendships...he is friends with whoever is in front of him. But my eight year old has a hard time making friends and he and his best friend have been friends since birth!  They share the same type of energy (which can be exhausting) and they are very in sync in so many ways.  Binyamin is not reacting like an adult would in this situation.  He is spending a lot of time acting out and avoiding the situation.  His friend came over yesterday, and he spent a lot of that time avoiding him and acting crazy in general.

Overall, it's very bittersweet to be leaving a community like Denver.  Everyone is being super supportive, which makes it harder to leave them!

Now I just have to focus on the last minute stress of packing the last few bags and getting to the airport tomorrow at 4AM for a 6AM flight!  With a million bags and five kids!  Should be a fun adventure.  

The Lift

The lift came yesterday and now everything is getting very real.  Thanks to my amazing friend Erin and her mom, we got everything ready for the movers the night before.  We only got a 20 ft lift, so I was unsure how much was going to be able to fit.

Our house was a crazy disaster, since we wanted to make everything really clear for the movers.  All the priority 1 stuff was in one pile in the living room, priority two was in another pile in the living room and priority 3 was downstairs.  In addition, we had some flat pack stuff (Ikea closets and a table and chair set from Costco) in the garage.  Oh and bikes...

When the movers came, they started with the bedroom furniture, which we knew we wanted to go no matter what.  Three trundle beds with their mattresses and a bunk bed with its mattresses (8 twin  mattresses). In addition we had a king sized bed and mattress and a full sized bed and mattress.

Here they are on the lift.

Our next priority was to get the bookshelves and books onto the lift.  As you might expect, we have a ton of books...I think we ended up with over 30 boxes of books since we have done several purges over the past couple years.

Then it came to the packed stuff.  I did not bring much kitchen stuff.  Our regular pots and pan (meat, dairy, and pareve) we are taking on the plane.  I am not bringing our weekday plates/bowls/etc.  The silverware that we are bringing (fairly limited) is also going on the plane with us. The only things that we shipped were our shabbos dishes (12 plates, 12 fish plates, and 12 bowls) and a couple serving platters. I didn't even bring the tea cups and saucers that go with our china set since I really never use them.

I didn't bring any glasses (no drinking glasses, no wine glasses) since they would take up a TON of space with all the packing material. Because of the differences in voltage, I only brought two small appliances (my mixer and my food processor) that could run with the transformer that we bought.

To make this whole day even more exciting, I was at work during this whole process!  I kept asking Aryeh and Daniel to take pictures, which they eventually did :). At first the movers thought they would only be able to get the priority 1 stuff into the lift, but in the end, they got all of 1 and most of 2.  They had to leave behind a few things I would have liked, but for the most part they got all the important stuff into the lift.

Here's the living room while they were packing.

 We used Kef moving and they contracted with Atlantic Relocation Services here in Denver.  We were really impressed with their professionalism and their speed. They arrived at about 8:30 in the morning and they were finished by 12:45!  I had heard that movers took 8 - 12 hours to pack up, but these guys got all the stuff packed and loaded with super great speed.


The scariest part about all of this is that now it is all really real!  The lift left last night and we all slept on air mattresses.  This morning I received the flight confirmation from El Al!  We have seats assigned and everything.  We only have 4 more days left in Denver!!!!  Israel, here we come!

We got approval!!!!

Yay!  We heard from Nefesh b'Nefesh yesterday. We were approved for the flight benefit (all of us) and we are confirmed for the August 1 flight from LAX.  I was able to order our kosher meals and I am waiting for the flight confirmation from El Al.

We now need to double check the names we are going to have on our Israeli passports (should we include middle names?).  Our US passports are at the embassy getting the aliyah visas right now and should be ready to pick up next week when we get to LA.

The lift is coming tomorrow!!!!  We have been getting rid of stuff for weeks, and sorting and packing. I have 15 suitcases packed and I am super nervous about fitting everything in that we need/want to bring on the plane.  I hope I don't need to reshuffle too much.

On El Al, your carry on can only weigh 18lbs!  That is a complication I didn't expect.  I wanted everyone to bring a week's worth of clothes on the plane with them, but for some, that is too heavy.  I guess we will work it out. The boys clothes don't weigh too much, so I will have to add stuff into their bags.

When the lift comes, I'll make sure to update the blog with pictures. I have to be at work tomorrow, but Sima has promised me she'll take lots of pictures.

Eretz Yisrael is only acquired by suffering

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that Hashem gave us three gifts that can only be acquired by suffering: Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and Olam Haba.  The process of aliyah is testing the truth of this.  We began the application process about 8 months ago. Fine. Throughout the process, we told everyone that Daniel has lived in Israel on an A-1 visa as a child. His family returned to he US when he was 12. We all received our approval for aliyah a few weeks ago and sent our passports to LA to get our aliyah visa. Again, all was well and good. We were told that the kids and I were also approved for the flight benefit but that they had to look into Daniel's situatio.

So today, I got an email from the Jewish Agency. They have said that Daniel is a gorer zechuyot, but they are sending it to a special committee now to try to get more rights for him.  The committee will be meeting early next week, so we are hoping to get an answer for you soon.

This seems like an unbelievable decision!  If he were an Israeli citizen he would qualify as a katin chozer (a returning minor) and receive full benefits.  A katin chozer is someone with Israeli citizenship, who left Israel before the age of 14 with both parents, lived at least 4 years out of Israel, and wants to return at the age of 17 or older.  The only thing I can think is that because he spent two years in yeshiva, that second year triggered a technical aliya and now his benefits are 25 years out of date.  For more information. 

I hope they can figure out something, since he has never made aliyah or receieved any benefits from the Israeli government.  It will be annoying if we have to pay for his flight ($1000 for a one way).  Also, it will impact all of our other benefits once we get there.  Luckily, I put the lift in my name, and I am for sure an oleh chadash.

The other issue will be his status when he tries to find a job.  As a new immigrant to Israel (oleh chadash) he would get special benefits when a teacher.  Basically, the school gets added benefits for hiring an oleh chadash.  If he isn't an oleh chadash, they have to deal with a new person who doesn't know the system without also getting the corresponding benefit. I think it will make his job search much harder.

I hope this suffering will be worth it. 

The lift

Getting ready for the lift is so complicated...what to pack in suitcases, what to ship, what to leave behind?

We have decided to go with Kef shipping.  They are a little more expensive, but I really liked:
1.  Dealing with Adam. He was responsive and professional
2. The use Atlantic Relocation for the packing in our area. I thought they were also a very professional service when they came out to do our quote.

At first they said they could come July 23...oh no, our flight to LA is July 24.  They were so nice, however, and got us rescheduled for July 19.  That is in a week and a half!

It is really hard to know how much space we are going to have and how much we'll be able to fit.  An of course, everyone we know wants to put on a couple boxes... :)

We have to label everything we own with a priority (1,2,3) or a do not pack label.

Priority 1:
Mattresses
Beds
Dressers
Shabbos china
books
bookshelves
bikes

Priority 2:
serving dishes
sports gear
school supplies
desk
corner hutch
monitors
Passover stuff
Folding chairs
Folding tables

Priorty 3:
party supplies
extra clothes
living room chairs
Ping Pong table
side shelves
kitchen chairs
dining room chairs
extra dressers
closets

Inventorying everything you own is super complicated. Then there is insurance to worry about. I can't wait to see the house after the movers come!

The Aliyah Process

Wow, is this process complicated!

We started planning and applying for aliyah in January. We gathered all our documents and uploaded them to nefesh b'nefesh.  Of course, it took until about April to get our first interview with the Jewish Agency. After that initial interview, we needed to have an in person interview with our local shaliach.  She was amazing, but we didn't get that interview until May.

We took our pilot trip from June 4 to June 14.  It was great and exhausting. I'll write about that trip in another post.  The shaliach in LA submitted our paperwork to the JA in Israel on June 4.  We didn't hear anything for about 2 weeks, I started to get nervous and happily, Nefesh b'Nefesh stepped in and got our file prioritized. They needed a few things:
    1. Proof of Daniel living outside Israel from 1997 to 2007.  Although we already provided this several times, we provided it again.
    2.  They wanted the first page of my birth certificate.  I was not named until after I left the hospital, so my birth certificate originally just said baby girl...Happily, my mom had a copy of the original birth certificate, so I was able to provide that.

A couple days later, they asked for a letter from Yeshivat Shaarei Mevaseret Tzion (my husband's yeshiva) to verify the dates he studied there, from 1992 - 1994.  Luckily, they are still in existence and they got me that letter quickly.

Finally, we got approval on July 2!  Yay.  However, the JA is still researching whether Daniel can receive the flight benefit for new olim. Since he lived there for 4 years as a child on an A-1 visa, then spent 2 years in yeshiva, they are unsure of what he qualifies for.  But for sure the rest of us qualify. Nefesh b'Nefesh has been great.  They reserved us seats on the LAX flight on August 1, despite the uncertainty about Daniel.

Once we got approval, then we could work on everything else.  But of course, now we are in a rush!  I had the lift companies provide quotes months ago, but now we need to get the lift scheduled ASAP.  We only have 3 weeks until we move.  We decided to go with Kef. Adam has been great and I am hoping they can get us scheduled before July 23!

We started packing.  On a designated flight, each family member is entitled to three checked bags of 50lbs each, as well as a carry on and a personal item.  So for us, that is 21 (!) checked bags.  Of course, no one has 21 suitcases, so we have been busy buying duffel bags, and taking people's old luggage (thanks, Shifra). m We have 6 bags packed so far.  Some clothes, some dishes, sheets, towels, toiletries, and school supplies.  The lift will not arrive until AT LEAST a month after we arrive, so we will certainly need cooking supplies and lots of other stuff upon arrival.

Now is certainly the stress time. We are planning to have a giant garage sale next Friday and Sunday.  I am hopeful we'll be able to off-load some of our possessions.

Welcome

OK.  Everyone has so many questions about what our plans are, and how the planning is going, I decided to create a blog so everyone can know...

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions.

1. When are you leaving?

We are leaving Denver on July 24 and spending a week in Los Angeles.  Our aliyah flight leaves at 1PM from LAX on August 1.

2.  Where are you going?

We are moving to Efrat. We will be living in a new neighborhood called Dagan.  Happily, we will be close to the Eisens (yay!).

3.  Why did you choose Dagan?

There are several reasons.  First of all, Efrat is an easy place to start for Anglos (English speakers) when they first get to Israel.  There is a large community of anglos there, the schools know how to handle kids who don't speak Hebrew, and the community is friendly and welcoming to new immigrants.

Dagan, being a new neighborhood, is nice because everyone (pretty much) is new there.  There hasn't been time for decades long friendships (and feuds) to develop.  The shuls are new and there is a lot of opportunity for contributing to the direction of local institutions.

It is also very close to Jerusalem.  It takes about 12 - 15 minutes on the bus until you are in the outskirts of Jerusalem.  Then you just have to get on a regular city bus to get wherever you are headed.  In a car, it is about 20 minutes to the center of town (not during rush hour).

Here is a map of Efrat:

Here is a map putting Efrat into context of Israel.  The Dagan neighborhood has a star.

4.  Where are the kids going to school?

They are going to a school called Orot Etzion.  They have a boys and a girls division.  They have a lot of experience with new Olim.  Additionally, they use the Barkai method.  This is an educational philosophy that  "focuses on religious studies following the order stipulated by our sages: “Bible at the age five, Mishna at age ten and Talmud at age fifteen”(Ethics of the Fathers 5:21). At the same time, the program aims at achieving maximum integration of secular and religious studies, broadening students horizons in all aspects of life.  The curriculum is centered on Torah study, both quantitatively and qualitatively.  The Barkai programs view is that secular subjects are to be integrated into the wisdom of the Torah, in line with the ideas of the Rambam. " 

They DO have a uniform for the girls, but it is cute and easy.  They wear baseball shirts like this:

 They can wear blue or pink and any skirt.  Needless to say, Sima is very happy to say goodbye to her ugly button down uniform shirts.

Yes, there is a bus.  It is a couple of miles to the school, so it is great that there is a bus.

5.  Are you bringing a lift?

We are planning to bring a lift.  We are trying to bring as little as possible, however...Basically, beds, bookshelves, dressers and books.  We are seriously paring down.

6.  Are you bringing a car?

No.  Bottom line is that the shipping of the car costs about $4000, the government charges 75% tax (that is with the new olim benefit), and the car will need to be retrofitted to conform to European standards.  To bring our 6 year old van, it will cost about $16,000!!!!  We'll have to get a new car when we get there.

7.  What are you doing for work?

B'H, I am going to be working in tech.  Daniel will be looking for a job in special education.  

8.  What kind of house did you get?

A beautiful, 7 bedroom cottage.  Yes, we will have plenty of space for guests.  If you are going to be in Israel, yes we want to see you!  Remember, we'll be close to Jerusalem.

That's it for now...I'll try to post regularly as we get through all the steps of this process.  Boy, is it hard.