It is no secret, Israel has often been known as a country of unrest. However, the 'unrest' in which a small part of Israel experiences, is often misconstrued as mass chaos throughout the land, by the media. In fact I remember the first time I learned Josh would be playing here...I was petrified at the thought! The media painted Israel to be this war ravaged country with car bombs exploding daily and suicide bombers walking about the towns. I was pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise upon my first visit, which was a time the country was in actual upheaval, and there was a 10 day war that broke out upon the day of my landing....even with this, the land was peaceful (all but the south that is).
Here we are in our 4th season in Israel; and finally, after 4 years my family is beginning to believe me when I say this is a peaceful and pleasant place. It is not a place filled with fear of the onset of a massive war. Even though they are beginning to believe us, they are still leery; that became apparent when mom (Josh's mom) and his brother thought to visit. All of mom's questions were, "are you sure it's safe?" "I heard there is going to be a nuclear war with Iran" "Are you sure it's okay"?" After much reassurance, she made her way over. She was able to see for her self how peaceful it really is, minus this one little piece of the country, a part we cannot even travel to if we wanted to. In fact, a week into her visit she was very surprised when I told her there were just missile attacks here in Israel. She was confused because it was so peaceful. When I told her they were only 2 hours away, she was still surprised, no one was carrying on like it was chaos....We reassured her that those homemade bombs cannot make their way to the north (where we live).
We continued our visit with mom and Lonny Jr by traveling to the Tiberias area. Upon driving I noticed a UN vehicle traveling opposite of us. It was slightly alarming to me, however when Lonny commented that, 'it isn't a good sign they are here' I just mentioned it is election year and it is Passover (a time notorious for attacks by the Palestinians) so they are probably here for peace treaties etc (this is true and I do believe it was why they were here...but I was slightly alarmed. Lets not forget missiles are going off in the south and there is tension with Iran right now). Anyway, we continued our travels. That next day Lonny had to leave (mom had another week with us).
The morning after dropping Lonny off at the airport I got a message from friends here in Israel saying that they would be leaving that evening (they were due to be here 2 more weeks but the team he was on decided to send him home due to injury). I wanted to see them before they left so Josh, mom, Rose and I met up with them for lunch. While at lunch they told us that they were warned not to travel a certain highway to Tel Aviv. When we asked why they told us about attacks of missiles on vehicles and that a man was killed just last year during passover attacks. (We live next to the city where the missiles were shot from). Keeping this in mind and recalling the upheaval in the south along with seeing the UN vehicle I began to get a little more concerned. I had to make sure mom got home safe...I knew we would be okay.
That next day (Monday now) Josh had a camp to do and then practice so mom and I took Rose for a walk. While we were on our walk I wanted to stop by the little store we have in our village so mom could dad some chocolate (which he loves). We were wandering around the store when all of a sudden I heard the 'bomb alarm' go off, which means you have 17 seconds to get into shelter. I grabbed mom, told her we had to go, she sensed the seriousness in my voice and we booked it to the front of the store along with several other customers. I had a plan for everything, a plan for evacuation, a plan for nuclear war, I knew what to grab and where to go....when we were at home. Now I am in the middle of no where, no way to contact Josh, nothing to cover our faces....I had no plan for this. My heart was racing.
As we got to the front of the store, the owner did not speak English and I had no clue what he was saying, but I looked into his eyes and I did not see fear. So I stopped listening to the words and began to go off of his nonverbal communication. He was telling us it was okay and that it was nothing. See, we are always notified of 'tests'...there were no notifications in my email, in the newspaper, from our team. Thankfully the alarm was tripped and there was no attack. Shelters are used often as safety precautions, like people in the Midwest use basements during Tornado warnings, even if there isn't a tornado spotted. So while there may not be a country-wide attack, if the missiles are close the alarms sound.
After my heart slowed down I had to thank God that we were not walking out in the open when the alarm went off...then I really would not have known what to do. Second I had to thank him it was not 'real'. For the first time here I had a scare. In retrospect I think my fear was because I have a daughter now. Had it been just me I of course would have been worried about Josh...but I had my baby and my baby needs her mommy and her daddy I was worried about our lives. I don't think mom really understood the seriousness of what the alarm meant, she just saw my face and knew to follow. I am glad she didn't, I didn't want her anymore worried than she already was about being here.
The reality of it struck me days later when I realized that one time, those sirens will be the real deal and it may not just be a few missiles, it could be a full out attack by Iran as they have threatened. For now, thanking God it was nothing and praying that so long as we are here it stays that way. I am preparing to come back home, and Josh will be here for a little while longer...that scares me. I'd rather face this possibility together than have him here alone facing it by himself. I told God that while we are here, if war breaks out He either has to keep us all safe or take us all, we are a package deal us three. I can't live without my love or my baby...that I know for sure. Too many coincidences, but I am thankful for them...they made me re-evaluate a few things in life.
Here we are in our 4th season in Israel; and finally, after 4 years my family is beginning to believe me when I say this is a peaceful and pleasant place. It is not a place filled with fear of the onset of a massive war. Even though they are beginning to believe us, they are still leery; that became apparent when mom (Josh's mom) and his brother thought to visit. All of mom's questions were, "are you sure it's safe?" "I heard there is going to be a nuclear war with Iran" "Are you sure it's okay"?" After much reassurance, she made her way over. She was able to see for her self how peaceful it really is, minus this one little piece of the country, a part we cannot even travel to if we wanted to. In fact, a week into her visit she was very surprised when I told her there were just missile attacks here in Israel. She was confused because it was so peaceful. When I told her they were only 2 hours away, she was still surprised, no one was carrying on like it was chaos....We reassured her that those homemade bombs cannot make their way to the north (where we live).
We continued our visit with mom and Lonny Jr by traveling to the Tiberias area. Upon driving I noticed a UN vehicle traveling opposite of us. It was slightly alarming to me, however when Lonny commented that, 'it isn't a good sign they are here' I just mentioned it is election year and it is Passover (a time notorious for attacks by the Palestinians) so they are probably here for peace treaties etc (this is true and I do believe it was why they were here...but I was slightly alarmed. Lets not forget missiles are going off in the south and there is tension with Iran right now). Anyway, we continued our travels. That next day Lonny had to leave (mom had another week with us).
The morning after dropping Lonny off at the airport I got a message from friends here in Israel saying that they would be leaving that evening (they were due to be here 2 more weeks but the team he was on decided to send him home due to injury). I wanted to see them before they left so Josh, mom, Rose and I met up with them for lunch. While at lunch they told us that they were warned not to travel a certain highway to Tel Aviv. When we asked why they told us about attacks of missiles on vehicles and that a man was killed just last year during passover attacks. (We live next to the city where the missiles were shot from). Keeping this in mind and recalling the upheaval in the south along with seeing the UN vehicle I began to get a little more concerned. I had to make sure mom got home safe...I knew we would be okay.
That next day (Monday now) Josh had a camp to do and then practice so mom and I took Rose for a walk. While we were on our walk I wanted to stop by the little store we have in our village so mom could dad some chocolate (which he loves). We were wandering around the store when all of a sudden I heard the 'bomb alarm' go off, which means you have 17 seconds to get into shelter. I grabbed mom, told her we had to go, she sensed the seriousness in my voice and we booked it to the front of the store along with several other customers. I had a plan for everything, a plan for evacuation, a plan for nuclear war, I knew what to grab and where to go....when we were at home. Now I am in the middle of no where, no way to contact Josh, nothing to cover our faces....I had no plan for this. My heart was racing.
As we got to the front of the store, the owner did not speak English and I had no clue what he was saying, but I looked into his eyes and I did not see fear. So I stopped listening to the words and began to go off of his nonverbal communication. He was telling us it was okay and that it was nothing. See, we are always notified of 'tests'...there were no notifications in my email, in the newspaper, from our team. Thankfully the alarm was tripped and there was no attack. Shelters are used often as safety precautions, like people in the Midwest use basements during Tornado warnings, even if there isn't a tornado spotted. So while there may not be a country-wide attack, if the missiles are close the alarms sound.
After my heart slowed down I had to thank God that we were not walking out in the open when the alarm went off...then I really would not have known what to do. Second I had to thank him it was not 'real'. For the first time here I had a scare. In retrospect I think my fear was because I have a daughter now. Had it been just me I of course would have been worried about Josh...but I had my baby and my baby needs her mommy and her daddy I was worried about our lives. I don't think mom really understood the seriousness of what the alarm meant, she just saw my face and knew to follow. I am glad she didn't, I didn't want her anymore worried than she already was about being here.
The reality of it struck me days later when I realized that one time, those sirens will be the real deal and it may not just be a few missiles, it could be a full out attack by Iran as they have threatened. For now, thanking God it was nothing and praying that so long as we are here it stays that way. I am preparing to come back home, and Josh will be here for a little while longer...that scares me. I'd rather face this possibility together than have him here alone facing it by himself. I told God that while we are here, if war breaks out He either has to keep us all safe or take us all, we are a package deal us three. I can't live without my love or my baby...that I know for sure. Too many coincidences, but I am thankful for them...they made me re-evaluate a few things in life.
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