Ten Year Aliyahversary!

We are officially no longer "new olim" having passed the decade mark! I went back today to read some of the posts we wrote from our first days (if you want to get all nostalgic with me, click here). We have come a looooong way, baby!

Somehow, in my mind, when I think about making aliyah, our kids are the ages they are now. Ilana definitely made aliyah, at age 19 (right?!). And then I look at the photos and see this little 9 year-old:

My heart is so full when I think of the last decade. It hasn't always been easy (when I started writing this, I was interrupted by a ballistic missile sent by the Houthis and had to head to the mamad. Although much more difficult was coping from afar with the deaths of Shalom Shachne's stepsisters Hilary and Deborah, his stepfather Ed, and my father Norman).

You know how when you're about to have a new experience, like starting a job, you lie in bed at night and imagine how it will be? Before I started college, I had visited my university. When you are about to begin a new job, you (usually) have been in the building you will be working at. Even things like having a baby, even if it's your first, you get a sense of what it will be like ("there will be crying. Diapers. Tiny clothes"). Well, aliyah was different for me. When I tried to look ahead, I saw....nothing because I had absolutely no idea what might come next. I had no relatives in the country and only two friends (shout-out to Lori and Fern!), neither of whom lived in our city.

And yet somehow Hashem smiled on us and helped us get through the last decade. We've all grown tremendously as people and as a family. Our kids were pretty darn incredible with how they dealt with the HUGE challenges of making aliyah, especially since they were over the "recommended" age of "under second grade". 

We went out today to Jerusalem to celebrate (a week late, but we had to wait for Ilana to be back in the country). Among other things, we went to the Kotel and out to eat at our favorite restaurant, Piccolino. 

Here is our poorly Photoshopped group "Then and Now" photos (since Chana and Percy weren't with us today, we had to be a little creative):

I am so thankful to Hashem for all the good things this decade has brought us (especially Menashe and Penina, who never would have met were she still living in the US) and hope that b''eH we will have many more happy, healthy decades here in this beautiful country.