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.