Some Karnei Shomron "pictas" as daughter #1 would say. Most are from our pilot trip a few weeks ago, some are from my "pre-pilot trip" last year.

There's new excitement on the horizon - Nefesh B'Nefesh has finally released the flight schedule for the summer! I've pretty much been unable to sit still since I received the e-mail earlier in the day. The way it works is like this:

1. NBN mails letters by Pesach to tell us if we've been accepted for NBN assistance.

2. Assuming we've been accepted, we will get a flight confirmation a few weeks after Pesach. This will be the notification of our flight date.

We're trying for the 30 July flight as our first choice. This is six days after Tisha b'Av.

In other news, we still have to finish our paperwork to send to the Israeli embassy to get our aliyah visas. We need to fill out three forms per person by hand - no copying allowed. We also need 3 passport photos each.

We're also working with shippers and deciding what's going and what's not. Check back frequently - there may be some bargains heading your way in the future. And if that isn't enough, we're working on getting the house ready to sell.

There's never a dull moment!

Well, well - more and more people have told me that a blog would be the best way to go regarding keeping everyone up to date on our aliyah activities. I'm going to give it another try, although I don't know how regularly I will update it. It seems that other bloggers seem to have much more time to create elaborate posts.

I missed blogging about our pilot trip in January. Perhaps what I will do is post my e-mail updates from the trip, for those of you who have not already read them. This was written on Friday, 26 January, from Bet Shemesh, Israel. I'll start with the first one here:

This is the first time all week that I've had a chance to get to a computer, and the first time all week that we will have a chance to stop riding buses! This has been an amazing week, with lots of travel, some networking meetings (to help find a job in the future), and a great deal of tiredness all around. Daughter #1, my wife, and I are in Bet Shemesh for Shabbat . Daughter #3 is visiting a friend in Chashmonayim since last night, and Daughter #2 stayed in Maale Adumim with a family that made aliyah last year and has a daughter her age. Very brave, as she will take the bus after Shabbat by herself and meet us at the Central Bust Station in Yerushalayim.

We've met up with many people, including David and Beth Gordon (on two different buses!), Janet Abromowitz' sister, and our neighbor's daughter who is here for the year. We met both families Barr for dinner last night, and will hopefully see the Gerstmans either tonight or tomorrow during the day. We stayed by the Ominsky family in Netanya, and the girls loved their dog Sahara. We will visit the Cahans on Sunday, and we have plans to see the Orensteins on Motzei Shabbat. We ran into Rabbi Elan and Rivka Adler, and Judi and Yael Pachino.

As far as living places, we've narrowed it down to Maale Adumim (which we knew about), and Karnei Shomron. We went with the Tehilla pilot trip yesterday, and 4 out of 5 of us fell in love. (Number 5 is coming around, though.) It's a tough decision - in MA, we have gorgeous views, the closeness of Yerushalayim, excellent schools, and and excellent bus system. In KS, we also have gorgeous views, cheaper living, and excellent schools. There will probably be less commuting time in KS, depending on where I find a job. Personally, KS "spoke to me."

Oy!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Shabbat, and we will have pictures and plenty to discuss when we get back. I don't look forward to leaving!

Shabbat Shalom!

I'll continue with the second e-mail update that I sent, once I'm able to find it. Hope everyone had a wonderful Purim, and I look forward to writing.