five months into it

Hello Everyone,I have attached two views from our back patio. We lovethe openness feeling of it. It is coming upon five months that we have been in ournew home and country. It continues to be a excitingand a huge growing experience for all of us. Thepositives far outweigh the negatives. The town we are in, Zichron Yaakov, is still gorgeousto us. It is a cross between Laguna Beach, Boulder,and Santa Barbara. Yesterday I was mountain bikingthrough open space in a tee shirt and shorts in 72degree weather. Today we will go to the beach and hangout a bit. Our house is large enough for us to haveour businesses in it but squeezed into 1/3 the size.It is fine as a rental. Our neighborhood is not ourfavorite but we will cope fine until the next movewhich I have no idea when, where and what. There willbe a next move sometime.I will start with Drew my beloved life adventurepartner and friend. We just celebrated our 20 yearanniversary. We hope to do something exciting in thespring to really commemorate it like go to Croatia orTurkey. Drew is eternally optimistic and holds me whenmy intensity gets the better part of me. He is in hislast three weeks of Ulpan, intensive language school.He has worked the hardest I could imagine and it haspaid off. He can hold a half hour conversation inpresent, past, and future. Not easy for a 44 year oldAmerican man learning a new language. It is often saidthat Americans learn languages the slowest. Thefastest, of course, are the Russians, then I believecome the French. Not sure on that one. He will bestarting to look for a job, maybe in a wood /cabinetfactory where he will be immersed in Hebrew and woodworking terms. Send him your good prayers as he facesthis new somewhat daunting phase of his life. Zach, 6 foot and 1 inch tall budding teen in foreigncountry. He can converse fairly freely with hisfriends in Hebrew. His social life is an 8.5/10. Hewishes he had the freedom of a 25 year old yet stillwants laundry done and food in the fridge. He is backto his Tae Qwon Doe. Unfortunately he got his brandnew bike stolen 4 days ago from right under his chin.He turned around and some kid grabbed the cool newAmerican mountain bike. It was his big bar mitzvahpresent and we have been down about it. Moving on.Learn and keep moving forward. He is working harder atschool but still can not understand 90% of what theteacher is saying. It is a struggle and I pray he willbe motivated enough to succeed with this challenge. Wehave to constantly reassess to figure out what is thebest path. Little Joshua. He is happy, misses Boulderperiodically, plays basketball 3 x week and getstutoring. Loves cartoons in Hebrew (sponge bob). He iscurrently writing, directing and acting in a movie. Ofcourse the stars are he and his cousins, Noa, Danieland Gavriel. Mostly the princess (Fair Noa) is to besaved by the handsome princes (josh and Daniel) fromthe evil monster (Gavirel). Very cute. School....whatschool? No, I am kidding. he is progressing along withthe same ole: tutors, fighting at school, friendissues (same same). You know the drill.Me? up down up down up down up down up down. Like ayo-yo. Coming here has taken my personal strengths andweakness and has magnified them with electronmicroscope. ha haa - that's funny. I work all over theplace hustling wherever I can. I go from the elderlyto the pediatric in one day with some soldier actionin the middle. I have started my army work (paid 8hours a week yet I've been there so far around 18hours a week) That has been very interesting, amazingand full of new experiences and visions. This is thestrangest part. I knew I was going to work in the Armybut I did not KNOW really (not know now) what armyreally is. It is sad and strange to me to be a healerin a place of 'the war machine'. I just don't have itin my heart that we can solving any problems withkilling human beings especially our children that we,as parents, have poured our hearts and souls intoraising them. I never even met a soldier in Boulder!Too young for the Vietnam days I guess. I am slowlylearning army is war. I look at these young (verycute) boys going out there to protect this teeny tinycountry from our neighbors that really hate us. It isa strange, isolating and awful feeling to me. Enough of that. The soldiers are wonderful, the work is 100%stimulating and great and I am the most grateful Icould be to be where I am.Then two days a week I work in the holy city ofJerusalem in my brothers holy (Small but magnificent)castle of a house. It is a great opportunity to stepout of my town, get away, see something else but a twohour commute with out traffic each way. I had 17 patients last week! This is my all time high.ooooohhh baby. Add in the kid driving, chauffeuring,cooking, shopping cleaning and other mom duties.We are starting to make some good friends. Thequalities of people here are wonderful. We really likethe lifestyle. Work like maniacs all week. Weekendsare Friday and Saturday. Friday am get together withfriends for brunch. Friday night shabbas dinnersomewhere, Saturday: exercise, hang out, travel, hike,see the countryside, eat and have a relaxing day.Sunday is back to the work week.I am really proud of us all. We are out here doing it.We are living out this dream.I miss the magnificence of the Rockies, 'Saddle Back'hikes, Chautauqua, dowdy draw, cinitas. Boulder to meis like a 'Lightness of Being'. Flowing thoughwhipping cream, snowboarding through puff puff powder.Enjoy.We miss you all and send you prayers of goodness,health and prosperity. love love loveAdele