Our new home (under construction)

We are living in Neve Daniel, a yishuv of 250 families located a mere 10 minute drive of Jerusalem. The yishuv is 23 years old and the original neighbourhood is on the east side of the mountain on which the yishuv is situated. We are currently renting a home in the original neighbourhood which faces Efrat which is right across the highway from us. This highway is the main route from Jerusalem to Hevron.
We are also building a home in the new neighbourhood (the west side) which faces west towards Beitar and Tzur Haddasah. We are also lucky that we have a view in a southern direction as well. The picture in this post is the view towards the west from our living room. The pictures gives some sense of the beauty of the area we are living in but it does not capture how beautiful it really is. When you add to this the fact that when you look out the windows you are literally seeing the land that our Patriarchs and Matriarchs walked on- it truly becomes overwhelming sometimes. In fact, I have been running with two other men from the Yishuv each erev Shabbat on the Derech Avot (Path of the Patriarchs)which was the route taken by pilgrims to Jerusalem and later used by the Romans. On this route their our mikvaot (ritual baths) as well as mile markers placed by the Romans. The history and beauty of the area are among the reasons we chose to live in Neve Daniel and we look forward to showing our family and friends the surroundings when they visit. Our home is supposed to be completed next summer and, believe it or not, it seems it may actually be completed on time. (Don't worry, we have contingency plans if it isn't ready by then)

Welcome to our Blog

Well many friends and family are interested in the details of our lives here so in order to avoid rewriting details and to have a good record of our progress in building and being built in the Land we have decided to create a weblog. We will try to post at least something on a daily basis.
It has been several weeks since our arrival in Israel on July 13 and there is so much too tell. Our landing was among the most emotional and happy moments of our lives - too finally fulfill our dream of living in Israel was extremly moving. We looked out the windows of the plane to see crowds of people around the plane from New York which arrived moments before ours. And then the plane door opened and we saw hundreds of cheering people including the Newman and Lewis families and Marcia Shumacher and Yvette Shumacher. The only slightly jarring moment was seeing a big CBC sign at the bottom of the stairs and having to deal with Ardrienne Arsenault asking me questions at a time like this (at least it wasn't Neil Macdonald). We had a big family hug and then were greeted by the hordes. It all seems like such a blur now. I remember seeing the co-founders of Nefesh bNefesh, Tony Gelbart and Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and thanking each of them for their help. Rabbi Fass who I only met briefly once before grabbed me and hugged and kissed me. I noticed a woman hugging Ruth and welcoming her. I assumed it was someone she knew but when I asked her , she said she had no idea who that woman was.
Michael Shumacher pulled some strings and arranged for our family to have our picture taken with Prime Minister Sharon. However, when we arrived at the front Sharon wasn't there so instead we had to settle for Shimon Peres. He was warm and spoke to each family member. He didn't ask but I volunteered that we were moving to Gush Etzion which didn't elicit a response. He asked Sara if he could pick her up and she just shouted "No" He told him he was a nice man but she just shouted "No, I am shy". We noted that the newspapers the next day carried a picture of Peres carrying a docile small baby.