We are here in Ramat Beit Shemesh and LOVING our new home!

Our movers left on Monday at 3 pm and we’ve been working hard since then to get everything ready in time for Pesach.  We decided to paint all of the bedrooms in addition to the main area (which our older two boys did before we moved) and it was a big job.  Everyone was feeling burnt out by the non-stop work by the second day but we needed to get the painting done so that we could assemble the furniture and start upacking.

I hadn’t anticipated needing to do so much of this work and this set me back a couple of days in my unpacking plans.  But now it looks wonderful and somehow we’ve managed to not only paint but to unpack almost all of our boxes in addition to being ready for Pesach!  The curtains are hung, the pictures are on the wall…the season for miracles! 🙂

Moving as we did at time when everyone is super busy with holiday preparations, we didn’t expect anyone to take much notice of our arrival.  I was pleasantly surprised and touched by those who reached out.

The morning of our move, a friend emailed to say she’d be happy to give me a lift to pick up some Pesach items I ordered, and was available to drive me other places as well.  Then while on the bus from Karmiel to Jerusalem, I got a call from a friend in a different area who said she would be doing her Passover shopping in Beit Shemesh and offered to take me along.  A bit later during the same bus ride, I got a call from someone I didn’t know who said she lives in RBS and heard we were coming – and could she make us dinner that night?  I got off the phone with a smile of disbelief that quickly turned into a big lump in my throat.

We got to RBS and there was a welcome sign from a neighboring family whose son was already hard at work with our boys spackling the walls.  Within a couple of hours of arriving, two boys arrived loaded with bags filled with canned foods, paper goods, and other useful things – their mother is a blog reader who despite giving birth just two weeks before somehow made the extra effort to reach out to us and send us things to make that first day or two of transition easier for us.  Then an hour or two later, our mortgage broker stopped by with gifts to welcome us to our new home.

This is really different from how things in a very small community with limited manpower were!  We felt so welcomed.

We love, love, love our new apartment. I feel very blessed that G-d has sent us the perfect apartment for our family – it has all the features that are important to me.

I’ve had a constant sense of tension for the past 3.5 years regarding living with very noise-sensitive and critical neighbors and have been very, very, very aware of every sound my children make.  As a result, I’ve limited a lot of things that in and of themselves aren’t problematic because I don’t want them to make noise.   It’s such a nice feeling to hear the sounds of neighboring children playing and to let our own children play without the constant monitoring of their every sound.  It’s amazing to be able to relax and let go of the constant pressure I’ve felt for so long.

Moving isn’t easy and it isn’t fun, but I am so grateful to be where I am now!

Avivah