Can you believe that today marks ten years since our family arrived in Israel?

It’s been a full decade, and here you’ve lived through a lot with me. Through tons of challenge – tons! – and lots of nachas, too.

Three married children, three spouses joining the family, three granddaughters, two grandsons, two grandchildren on the way…and now the wedding tomorrow.

It’s particularly poignant to me to be celebrating the wedding of our fourth child at this time. He was 12.5 when we made aliyah, and was the child who had the hardest time leaving his friends. And somehow, he completely put himself forward into a new life, new culture, new language, becoming successfully integrated into Israeli culture while maintaining his American qualities.

Coming with a large family of so many older children wasn’t recommended, and I wouldn’t tell anyone else to follow in our footsteps. It seemed crazy to a lot of people but it made sense to me. (My husband, not so much! He went along with me because he said my decisions until that point were always good ones and one day he knew he would say it was the right thing, so he agreed even though he didn’t want to move.)

It was a hard transition, but we all agree that we’re so happy and grateful for the life that we have now.

If there’s something you really want to do, but you’re afraid, think about the payoff down the road. In the short term change can be daunting, but if you really feel there’s something that will qualitatively change your life, then I’d encourage you to listen to that inner voice.

Avivah