commUNITY

A house is just a house.

I believed this rather strongly the past two years, having seen the hardest life transition of a father passing and a mother shortly after fighting cancer, now thank G-d on the mend (thanks to all your continued prayers and with the advancement of science, bi'h).

The other day we signed our purchase and sale to a young Jewish couple who moved from France three years ago to the United States. They live close to the area and hope to start and raise a family in Sharon. The letter they attached with their offer resonated with me. It concluded with "we hope you will make the right decision for us BH." Our house was on the market for less than three weeks (maybe two). And it all happened so fast. The Jewish Agency approved us around May 22nd. The house got an offer around that time too. The lift was scheduled. Family in Israel asked us to get more serious as to what we plan to do after we land (right, that part... Oops).

The very next day I was asked to help our realtor with a marketing video. As I've shared in other posts, our realtor is creative, passionate, innovative and trustworthy. It's why we chose her and will be featured in her video (what a great memory that will be). In the script, the following was written:

"That deal is a house. That house becomes a home. Those homes make neighbors and friends. And those neighbors and friends make community."

The night before signing the purchase and sale, I won't lie - - I had a panic attack. My mind raced wondering, what if we don't sign? Well, we would mess up this person's efforts, and that person, lose money on that, get in the way of our dreams, stay in Boston where long term neither of us saw a future in line with our religious ideals. The list went on and on. Anxiety is paralyzing and I absolutely hate it. I've gone to therapy and practiced yoga, CBT and other things. The problem with anxiety is that you have such excitement and certainty to start. Some of these feelings are normal, but not if they cause to derail you.

So when I went to see my Dr today, without batting an eye lash she prescribed Klonopin. Thank you again, modern medicine!

Why do I share this. Well, when starting this blog I truly wanted to be real. Not just the sparkly eyes and brainwashing about how life should be lived in Israel if you are going to be a Zionistic Jew. Not everyone can so easily pack up their lives and move 6,000 miles away. And many of us give tzedaka from here to Israel and advocate in DC, etc. It's all good.

We've really loved our home. And I'm starting to understand those who said they'll miss us. I received the following email before Shabbat -

"Thank you both for being part of my amazing journey [...]  you and Josh were so welcoming to me from the beginning and it’s that kindness I will never forget [...] I could not be more thrilled to know your relocating to Israel thou everything about your family will be missed in Sharon, the Holy Land will be a stronger country because of your family- With all the love, respect and support."

Speaking of stronger countries the most remarkable thing happened when I saw a video blog of Beit Shemesh on Facebook. I wrote about our pending arrival. In response people on our block HEARD and knew about us (?!) and we've connected in return with them.

מי כעמך ישראל.

We haven't even moved and are being embraced by new people - - neighbors who will help us create our new home.

Finding home definitely starts within our hearts. It is then supported with the encouragement others give along the way.

With that in mind, we never truly say goodbye when we transition.  We simply extend our family and unite in new ways.

Thanks to commUNITY.

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