Planes, trains, and Israel

Oh, this hotel is sooooo nice.
I am so grateful to be here after huge travel ordeals we've endured. It has *not* been easy. It seems that when we finally get to our destination, we have a wonderful time. The travel, however, has been impossibly difficult. I don't want to go into all the gory detail here, but suffice it to say that it took us seven hours to get from Indianapolis to JFK airport in New York. That was, by the way, by way of Atlanta, Georga. Once in JFK, it took another hour or more to search down the luggage that had arrived there five hours before us, on the flight we were supposed to be on. They took the luggage without us.
Then after finally getting to the house in Brooklyn where we spent the one night, we got the kids to bed at 4:30am. At 9am there was a union workers demonstration directly at our windows (but involving the neighbors, not our house) which woke up the kids and Robert (but not me, thanks to my earplugs and the methadone. :-)). There were megaphones and sirens involved. Good morning.

This hotel in Long Island,  however, is wonderful. We have a lovely suite which has two bedrooms, a living room, and a little, but fully functional, kitchenette (which is now Kosher :-)). Oh, and a pool. Let's not forget about the pool. Today my parents took the children to the pool while I rested. I had to sleep off a migraine. No surprise where that came from.

It's been a hard trip. (did I mention that before?)
My body, for the most part, has held up through the hardships, but my emotions have shattered on more than one occasion. I *have* had increased pain, and have challenged it many times, necessarily. That's vacation for you... walking, museums, waiting on lines, airports (oh, the airports... we have seen just too many of those recently).

Emotionally it is very hard for me to travel. My nerves have been shattered.
I used to love to travel, though. I had a true wanderlust. I wanted to see all the wonderful places in the world. I always wanted to *leave* where I was.
I am not like that anymore at all.

I live in the best place in the world; the absolute true and right place for me and my family. Of that I am sure.
I don't need to keep running. Not that this trip is about running, of course. This trip is about seeing family.
There were more than a few trips in my life that were about running from, searching for... for *what* I wasn't sure, but searching.

I am pretty sure that what I was looking for was God. I wanted to feel that "right" feeling.
I went in a crooked line, it seems.
Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel) was home, finally. It came up upon me when I wasn't looking, actually. I went to visit with my brother who lived there at the time. It simply felt like home. I ached for it the day I returned. I spent a year aching for it. Hashem sent me a free ticket to go back. The trip conveniently was scheduled a few days after I graduated with my master's degree in Music. All I had to do was work in Israel for two weeks as a brass section coach for the youth orchestra I was working for. After the tour, they left, and I stayed. That was pretty much it.
Hashem sent me the ability to land a good job in less than a week.
I met Robert a few months later, and we became friends... well, good friends. :-)

Two years after that my roots started to grow. We got married, we started a family.

I think I miss home. I need to water my roots.

We'll be back on August 24th, with the help of God.