I never did manage to blog about my thoughts on my family's trip to Israel, so I thought I'd give it a shot....
I've dreamed about my family in Israel with me, I've fantasized about leading them through the streets watching them take it all in. The things that were normal to me, and familiar becoming just as familiar and normal to them too. There are two moments that made that trip the most magical experience for me. The first happened on the night we got there, after we had landed, completely exhausted and stressed from dealing with a cab driver who couldn't find where we needed to go and spoke practically no English. We hadn't eaten dinner and everyone was tired and just wanted to go to bed..., well I wanted to go to bed, and Mom was all full of energy! I swear she never slept! As dad tried to figure out how we where going to eat, I tried to kindly say without snapping to much, say "hey! I do know where things are here!" I was not very listened to at first because everyone wanted to do it for themselves. Well mom wanted shwarma, and there's only one place you should ever go for shwarma or falafel! And that's in Ben Yehuda st, there's this little restaurant called HaMarosh. Exhausted and hungry I took my family (minus my sister who was rather sick), to this little place and ordered for them shwarma, falafel and shnitzel, Dad of course had to video everything...embarrassing as most of my Hebrew was still on delay since I couldn't think straight. Everything was worth it though when I handed Mom that first shwarma, and she took that first bite. There was a second when the world stopped for just a moment as my Mother's face took on that look that had only one emotion to it, so pure and clear that even I smiled at it. The smile on her face full of pure happiness, I felt such excitement and such pride, even though I'd really not done anything. But I know she never looked more beautiful, that excitement never left the whole trip! The other moment, was walking to the kotel hand in hand with my sister and my mom. When we got through the old city and we got through the security check, we just stood in the courtyard looking at it. Although there was nothing magical about it for me, once again my mom made it the best moment possible for me. My sister seemed to have no emotional connection to it at all, my mom held both of our hands and as we walked towards it, tears came to my eyes, we touched the wall at possible for me. My sister seemed to have no emotional connection to it at all, my mom held both of our hands and as we walked towards it, tears came to my eyes, we touched the wall and said a prayer. As we walked back, meeting up with my dad and brother's I couldn't have been happier, had the best time with my family and I wouldn't ever trade it for anything in the whole wide world!