Much too much excitement...

The Gliksman Family

I was going to update and give all the details of the house, what worked and what didn’t (quite a bit didn’t). I wanted to share the L O N G process of finding closets that could fit the girls’ rooms as well as have them delivered in a timely manner… I was even going to share which bathroom flooded what area of the house, what areas had no electricity (kitchen) which appliances didn’t work (all except the washer and dryer) and in which rooms the air-conditioning didn’t work (my bedroom and the living room). As all of this was happening and I was trying to handle it (without a phone line or internet connection), I kept telling myself and all around that in a couple of weeks these will all be faint if annoying memories…

I have to say today’s experience makes all past ones pale… at around 6:00PM tonight we had our first experience hearing the air raid sirens… my cousin came over with his three children to spend the weekend, his wife needed some time to complete a project she’s working on. He came in and asked if I minded if he ran to get his hair cut, I said sure no problem… there I was with 6 children under the age of 10 when I heard this strange if vaguely familiar sound (haven’t heard this since I was 8 years old…) one of the girls came running in screaming siren… earlier today I heard that the sirens were on at a neighboring town, so the girls and I went through a drill of what needs to be done.. I never thought we would actually go through the process… all 5 girls ran to the secured room. I ran and grabbed my little cousin (3) who was sleeping on the couch and ran in with him… Lior was hysterical… Danielle kept trying to shut the door that wouldn’t close properly, and I realized that I didn’t have my cell phone on…

I tried to calm them down by telling them about the 73 war and where I was when the first siren was heard. All went pretty well, we waited and left the room after realizing that all was quiet my cousin arrived and told us the siren was from a neighboring town and no rockets fell. We went out, had dinner hung around all was well. The kids were having a blast together. At around 9:00 PM my cousin took his son upstairs to watch some TV suddenly I saw them rushing down and hurrying everyone into the room, I looked at him blankly, and he said come on the Sirens are on and I heard the rocket fall… Maya heard him and started crying, Lior followed. Mika (my cousin’s 7 year old) declared that she wanted to go home NOW, we were welcome to come… Danielle and the other two were very calm. Well the phones started ringing… the rockets (3) fell about a mile away… we have received two invitations to come stay with friends…

It is just past midnight, all is relatively calm except that no one is sleeping in their bed… Danielle decided to sleep in the secured room (just in case) Lior is sleeping with me, and the rest of the kids are sleeping in the living room with my cousin… Aren’t we glad I bought everyone a bed with a trundle in case of guests…

Well this is it for now… I’ll sign off wishing us all a peaceful night. Let’s hope this madness is over soon.

Thanks for cking in,

Love,

Ronit