Water Joy: A Photo Collection

 

As if spending a day at NASA was not genius enough, Saba (Grandfather in Hebrew)  Nechemia then decided to take them to Kemah. Kemah is a very cool outdoor marina-style promenade filled with shops and cafes, and something magical. This entire entry is dedicated to the joy of water. Not just any water, but water that kept my little ones busy for hours; water that shot out of the ground in a pattern known only to itself. It was free; it was pure and awesome; and it made some fantastic pictures. Enjoy!

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God Bless America

So, it's our first morning in America. I was so excited to introduce my kids to the culture I grew up in; the land my parents became naturalized citizens of in 1976. The land where mommy can read everything and everyone understands her tiniest nuances. Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Walmart, Andies Mints, certain smells and sights and sounds that only exist here. Ah, breathe in relief. Kobi took the kids down to breakfast. They spoke too loudly, took too much food from the buffet, and spilled too many things onto the table and their clothing. How embarrassing when everyone around you is so cultured, and you feel like your kids just came out of the zoo.

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Packing Up

 

Packing up for our new nomadic family lifestyle was no easy task. We actually began three years before we left. Back then, we started going through the house and saying "do we really need this?" "are we going to store it until we get back?" and out it went. We got the kids involved, and intentionally, months before departure, got us all used to living on a lot less stuff 

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Tasting Fears and Doubts

Leaving my home was heart-breaking, scary, and ironic. We're about to go live a dream we have saving for for almost five years; and rather than be excited about it, I'm freaking out. This entry is a collection of journal entries from April, May, and March of 2011, those last months before departure. It covers a dash of my fears, a teaspoon of my uncertainty, and a pound of confusion.

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Teaching Our Kids Responsibility

So I'm driving east down highway 6 in Houston,Texas at 11pm. I'm looking for a good radio station. I hit the Dalia show. Let's see. Nice music. Sounds cool. I keep it on. A woman calls and asks for the song "Forever Young". She keeps saying that her son is a good person and that she knows him deep inside. Turns out, she's a single mom and her son, now 20, has gotten into a lot of serious trouble in his young life. Dalia, like me a family therapist with a radio show, asks her some really hard questions.

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Finding Bits of My Soul- Houston, Texas

We meant to leave Israel, see the States,and swing by Houston for a few weeks. We ended up spending two long, relaxing months in Houston; catching up with old friends and catching our breaths. Houston gave us an eclectic taste of city life, tons of time to reflect on what the hell we were actually doing, and great opportunities to see friends and my family. After raising our kids half way across the world in Israel; it was a gift to our kids to have quality time with my mother, step-father, and brother. This entry reflects some of what my soul recaptured in the sights and sounds of the city I spent most of my life in:  Houston, Texas.

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Teaching Them To Dare

One had on a pink shirt; the other a light blue tank top. they're in their twenties. i don't know their names and never saw their faces. If they were sitting in front of me right now, I wouldn't know it was them. All the same, these faceless, nameless young ladies infuriated me and consumed my thoughts for most of the last few days.

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Voluntary Frugality

It is the dream of many a family to travel the world. It was our dream for a long, long time. We are always asked how we can afford to live as a nomadic family. People assume that we are rich; therefore, we can, but they can't. Well, we're not rich. We never have been. We simply made choices that kept our goal constantly in mind. We learned the difference between needs and wants, and chose 'voluntary frugality'. This entry describes some of the frugality choices and mentality that we developed that allowed for this nomadic family dream to become a reality.

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Painful First Days

Beginnings are always a little tough.The last three weeks before leaving Israel, Kobi and I had a hysterical mountain of work to do. The night before we left, I fell asleep on the couch while Kobi finished up last minute stuff until 4am. Arriving to your around-the-world family adventure exhausted is highly unrecommended.We arrived to New York, totally exhausted and jet lagged. We took turns falling asleep in mid-sentence, and the kids felt more than a bit lost.

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