Lizrael Update

Category: b’herayon

  • Five years' time.

    So, my son now has one of his three passports. The Israeli passport came in today and is it wrong to think, after seeing its expiration date of 2014, that it happens to be excellent timing in accordance with this headline from today’s Haaretz: Mossad: Iran will have nuclear bomb by 2014 Just saying.

  • Koala update: six weeks.

    Imagine that six weeks ago yesterday my entire life was altered in a way I slowly come to fathom every day. Piece by piece. On so many levels I am amazed: at myself, for making it happen through a kind of energy and inner strength I wasn’t sure I had… At my husband, who was…

  • Normal.

    People have been poo-pooing the national security drills taking place across Israel today. I understand why; often the bomb shelters are locked up, uninhabitable, or don’t exist at all in places where they should. However, it’s a government responsibility, should happen at least once a year, and as dysfunctional as miklatim may be now, it’s…

  • On citizenship, mistakes and boobs.

    Today started out with traveling (yes, it felt like traveling) over to East Jerusalem to arrive at the American Consulate to report my 1/3 American son’s birth and apply for a passport for him. Well, almost 1/3 American. Apparently there was a chunk of the application process which I missed: proof I’ve lived stateside for…

  • A model, a citizen… a baby.

    Five visits to photo shops, 6493542 attempted DIY shots, and one sore infant’s neck later – passport photos for the US, Australia and of course, Israel. Yep, our son will be a triple citizen by the time it’s all over. And not without his own brand of being sleepy and making us crazy, part II.…

  • The shaking of my non-faith.

    You may think you have everything to lose until you have a kid. Yeah, I had stuff to lose before… but now everything I had to lose is seen in the new light of having a kid and thus everything to lose.  Which is why today it dawned on me: My family lives in Israel.…

  • Making the most of maternity leave.

    It’s three and a half weeks later and all of our ‘afterbirth’ guests have departed as of today. Needless to say we are looking forward to being able to settle into a semi-permanent routine where he goes to work every day till 3pm and I’m hanging with the little one playing Holly Homemaker.  Paid maternity…

  • An Israeli parenting first.

    While I was pregnant, I found that I wasn’t getting too many invasive comments, suggestions and guesses from middle-aged to older Israeli women (as I had dreadfully expected). When I mentioned this to some, they said not to worry; the comments would come for sure once I had a baby to show for it.  “They’ll…

  • Mother's Day.

    People have been asking me, “how is to be a mom?” As a brand-new mother, I haven’t yet had a chance to think about what it is to be a mother. Not enough time, you see.  In some places (not Israel) today is Mother’s Day, so maybe I should take a second and try to…

  • Another brit, another Jew.

    Yesterday we participated in what must be the oldest Jewish ritual, decended straight from (poor) Abraham. I do not envy Sarah, by the way, who had to deal with the healing of not only an 8-day-old with a bruised penis, but a moody teenager and her senior-citizen husband.  Yes, the brit mila. Ritually slicing and…

  • The Hadassah birthing experience.

    In the end, we went to Hadassah Ein Kerem for the birth. It was an issue of confidence and although I think I still would have preferred a homebirth, I can say with 20/20 retrospective vision that I’m comfortable with our experience – it was positive, it was successful and… it was lucky, as these…

  • This is how we do it.

    The following are a few excerpts from an email I wrote to my birthing class instructor explaining how the birth went in my view.  By the way, I highly recommend the class I took (or taking a class at all – it’s not all superficial breathing, but more about awareness). I also recommend having a…