The First 90 Days...

Wow...

It's hard to believe that we've been living in Israel now for just a bit over 3 months. Not hard to believe in the ususal sense of "Wow, where did the time go?", but hard to believe in just how comfortable and natural life feels after only 3 months. And, most surprising, it's not a feeling that has taken 3 months to develop. It's more like that feeling met us at the airport, drove us home, and has been with us ever since. In a way, that is exactly how it did happen...

"El Al FLight 27, you are cleared for take-off..."

Even though we were not on an official Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyah flight with 200 other olim, we were traveling with 3 other families making aliyah. One of these families, the Barr's, was also headed to Kochav Yaakov, and had in fact rented the house next door to the house we had rented. This made not only the flight a bit less stressful, but also provided a certain level of comfort and validation to the decision process which had led us to choose Kochav Yaakov.

At the airport in Israel, we were met by an AACI volunteer who guided us through the requisite new immigrant paperwork and processing, the culmination of which is the receipt of a Teudat Oleh, a passport-like document which is your first official recognition as an Israeli citezen.

The next step was to retrieve our checked luggage. As olim chadashim (new immigrants), we were entitled to 3 checked pieces of luggage per ticket, which for our family of 8 translated into 24 seventy pound packages. We opted to pack in 24 heay-duty cardboard boxes, so that we could simply throw the "luggage" away as we unpacked, and not have to worry about the storage and expense of dealing with 24 pieces of real luggage. At the luggage pick-up area, we were met by Kochav Yaakov resident Shlomo Benzaquen. Shlomo, along with his wife Susie and their 5 kids, very much personify that feeling of warmth and comfort I touched upon earlier.

...to be continued