We moved into our new home in Canadian Lakes, Michigan yesterday.

First of all, let me tell you about Michigan in February. There’s about 3 inches of snow on the ground, and 22 inches of ice on the lakes. The roads are clear of snow and ice - though maybe I shouldn’t say “road” because they’re more pothole than pavement. On our way to the grocery store yesterday afternoon we narrowly avoided being hit by a gang of mammoth shaggy does, and judging from the variety of dead animals on the side of the road, fauna abound in this area. It is amazingly cold, and apparently this is a warm spell. I wish you all could have seen us getting into the car this morning - I thought I would never be warm again.

Our house is in a resort area where, according to the neighborhood schedule, there are book groups, euchre, poker, and bridge games, daily winter hiking clubs, Bible studies, singing groups, sewing circles, square dancing, aquasize (indoor, thankfully), fishing clubs, cross-country skiing groups, and a planned event for any other type of outdoor or indoor activity that can be engaged in corporately. I intend to take part in all most of them. The house itself is cute - if you overlook the various leaks, the saggy bed, the stinky hot water (temporary, they assure us), the non-functioning fridge (though we saved the freezer goods by putting them outside overnight), and the rental house smell. And I’m a little bit afraid of our guest bathroom. But seriously, we’ve unpacked and nested, and once we fix our “punch list,” I think we’re really going to love it.

The people here are amazingly friendly. We met a couple at WalMart last night (the only grocery store we’ve located thus far, sadly) who told us the best place in town to eat (Sharon’s - just down the road - open 24 hours over the weekend) and welcomed us warmly to the area. Our real estate agent has been a doll, and we look forward to going in on the first of every month to hand her our check. This morning we met Jamie, who works for our landlord and will be fixing things up for us. He’s super nice, a Jehovah’s Witness, and plays hockey on one of the lakes regularly. He told us that the owner left 2 kayaks which he’ll bring over when the ice melts - yay!

So, despite the occasional flashes of “oh my soul! what were we thinking? what are we doing here?”, we’re settling in nicely, and we’re excited about the future. We have this week to get everything in order - and me may even sneak off to Crystal Mountain for some downhill skiing. See pictures of the new place in our gallery. We miss everyone tons.

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As advertised, Franklin and I have migrated across the ocean with our dog and a small sampling of our worldly goods in tow. The months leading up to the great exodus were both unbearably stressful and incredibly wonderful at the same time.

The stressful part looked like this: we went through everything in our entire house and either packed it, boxed it for storage, or sold it. We’ve lived in Jerusalem for 8 years, and we’d accumulated significantly more possessions than is in accordance with the simple life we claim to live. It took forever to go through it, but in the end we got rid of about 70% of our non-furniture or guitar related detritus. During the same period of time, our neighbors from down the street moved in with us. They’re among our best friends in the world, so this event mostly belongs on the wonderful list, but for a short while there were 5 humans and three dogs in the house who were all undergoing major life changes and you could cut the stress with a knife. We made it through with a lot of laughter, and I have hope that their dogs will one day recover from the trauma that our dog subjected them to. We also got to deal with the joys of finding a place to live from long distance, planning for the creation of a guitar repair company and accompanying visa so that we can go back to Israel when this is all over, and saying goodbye to friends who are close enough to be considered family.

The wonderful part looked like this: we went to London for Christmas with members of the above-mentioned friends who are close enough to be considered family. We were joined by our biological family, and an amazing time was had by all. Let me tell you, we are a group who knows how to have fun with style. We only publicly embarrassed our host two or three (dozen) times. Afterwards we went skiing in the French Alps. Words fail for the most part, but here are a few that come to mind: private jet, after ski tea, lunch on the slopes, miles of runs, sunshine and champagne. It was a dream, and if I didn’t have pictures, I wouldn’t believe it happened to me.

So now we’re bouncing back and forth between Franklin’s parents in Columbia, SC and my family in Charlotte, NC. We leave at the end of the month for frozen Michigan. Some parts of the move have been more painful than we thought (we really miss our friends, we’re suffering a bit of culture shock, we were floored by the price of medical insurance here, we’re not fond of the NC DMV), but it’s hard not to be optimistic when we think of our upcoming time in Michigan. I imagine myself cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, fly fishing, cycling, and kayaking while Franklin builds guitars and hones his skills - then I remember that I’m an extremely lazy person and I’ll need to get a job. But it still seems like a time of great opportunity. A time to relax from the tensions of the middle east and focus on living day to day in a country where living is easy (despite what you hear from both Obama and Limbaugh). A time to reconnect with family and friends on this side of the ocean, and to remember why we’re glad to be Americans.

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