"Houston, we have LIFT OFF!!!!!!!!!"

After all the anticipation and the wait and the blood, sweat (and tears!) the lift/container arrived bright and early on this drizzly morning. In a matter of 7 hours, our entire lives at 6315 N Lawndale in Chicago was loaded up and ready to ship to Israel. In the morning, I was feeling queasy and nervous at the prospect of watching my stuff leave the house. As the day wore on, it seemed more and more calm as floor space that I never existed began to materialize. You have to remember that we began packing our first box a year ago! (Obviously, most of the packing has happened over the past few months only)

The movers were great! I can not say enough about their professionalism and speed! We did NOT have the experience of people stopping in to gawk by the dozens as others have had. (A couple of close friends dropped by and it WAS appreciated, I must tell you.)

How can I encapsulate my thoughts and feelings at this moment...On the one hand there is great relief, as we finally move from time measured as B.L. (before lift) to A.L. There have been so many good things that have occurred over the past few months as we prepared for this step of Aliya...EVEN Ikea (in hindsight) is looking like it was okay, too. (But you gotta squint really hard to see the good in those visits).

As I type these words, I can actually "hear" the echo in the den as I type due to the lack of items here to absorb the sound. We will begin to live out of suitcases, plastic cutlery, and on mattresses on the floor as of tonight. I am thinking of getting myself a cardboard sign that says "Homeless...Please help!" and standing at McCormick and Devon for a few hours. These other guys seem to do ok there, so maybe I can too!

After a little time for relaxing (FINALLY), the focus turns to cleaning up the house and packing up the rest of the items that we will take with us on the plane.

I have butterflies now, as the dream is that much closer to reality. I thank Hashem for giving us the opportunity to get this far in the process and still remain (relatively) sane.

Here are two pictures to give you a sense of the "Before" and "After" of the basement. I hope to post a whole series of pics one day.

AFTER BEFORE