We are keeping another website for our adventures since returning to the United States. You can find it here:
We have arrived! We are safe and sound in Hillsboro, Oregon. We are very tired! We are staying at a friend's house for a couple of days.
We are having a wonderful time in Belgium. We arrived Wednesday morning in Brussels. We ate pains au chocolat, waffles and chocolates for breakfast. We were able to check in to our hotel at 10 am. We turned on cartoons for the kids and decided to nap. We thought we would be ready to go by noon. All four of us fell asleep and we finally all woke up at 4 pm! It was nice to rest and recover from the stressful couple of weeks we have had.
We spent a couple days in Brussels, visited Dinant and then left Belgium and spent a day in Luxembourg. We went to Bastogne and then to Liege. We attended church in Liege and then spent the afternoon with the Bellings, a family Scott taught on his mission. We had a wonderful time with them. Tomorrow, we head to Brussels and the next day to Bruges.
The taxi to take us to the airport will pick us up in about 15 minutes. We have had a wonderful stay in Israel. These two and a half years have passed amazingly quickly and we have on the whole enjoyed it. These past two weeks have been a little stressful, but that is helping it to not be as hard to leave.
We will update our blog once we get back in the States. There are several things we need to add: Eilat, Arbel cliffs, Jerusalem and also the past weekend.
We will be back in the States on August 3rd, but things will be busy for a while. We hope to hear from you soon.
On Wednesday afternoon, the moving company called to say they would send a work crew to our apartment on Thursday. We were thrilled because this was the last big thing we had to get done before leaving Israel.
Scott drove up to Haifa and arrived about 8 am. Tiffany stayed with the kids in Herzliya. Scott started cleaning out the fridge and kitchen. Due to new customs regulations in the US, we aren't allowed to ship any food. Scott packed 5 big boxes of food to distribute to friends. Scott made about 10 trips to the dumpster throughout the day.
The work crew was supposed to show up between 8:30 and 9:00 am. Scott tried calling the shipping company at 9:15, but couldn't get through to anyone. The movers called about 9:30, said they were 20 minutes away and asked for the exact street name. By 10 am, Scott asked our building maintenance man to call the mover's cell phone. They told him that they were in front of the building. Within a minute they were arguing with each other whether they were in fact in front of the building. Then Scott found out that they were on the right street but in Tirat Ha-Carmel, about 30 minutes away from Haifa! By 11 am, the workers were at the apartment and started to work.
The packing started out OK, but then one of the movers decided to leave. He didn't come back until 5 pm. That left two movers to do all the work. The movers also kept telling Scott that we had too much stuff and they wouldn't be able to pack it all. Scott had to call the main office of the shipping company to get it all arranged. Of course, the movers didn't bring the scale they were supposed to bring, so this was all based on their guesswork. They claimed we had double what we were alloted.
Fortunately it was a very calm day in Haifa. There was only one siren and it was a false alarm. Scott thought it was funny that the movers, who were very hesitant to come to Haifa, ran to the windows to look outside when the siren sounded.
Scott noticed that the movers weren't keeping track of what was being packed for the packing list. Scott wasn't able to communicate that to the movers and so he called the shipping company offices. They told him not to worry. However, at the end of the day, the movers asked Scott to fill out the packing list after the boxes were packed and on the truck! The movers also didn't give Scott all the paperwork that we were supposed to receive.
After the movers left, Scott finished organizing the house. Scott left Haifa at about 5:30 pm and returned to Herzliya. Scott took a quick shower and we got the kids ready for bed and left them with the Earls. Then we went to a movie theater in Herzliya and watched Pirates of the Caribbean with our friends Rivi and Efrat. It was nice to have a break from the stress of the week.
