Downsizing! What An Experience!

Someone once asked

How do you know who's a friend?

How do you make a friend?

....The answer

❤️BE THERE FOR THEM

IN TIMES OF JOY😄 OR SORROW😥

One kind word! One small act! What a difference it could make

I was inspired to write this short article expressing my emotions and feelings as I move once again and witness something special!

Title:  ZERO Kids at Home 😥

💐 Small Acts of Chesed that cheered me up!




❤️ You have no idea the impact that 3 small acts of kindness had made on me this week!(yesterday)

If you haven't noticed by now,(with all my ads on Craig's list... selling and giving away household stuff),I will actually be living between 2 dwellings this weekend.

You see my daughter Shevy is Bh getting married next week in San Fransisco💍🍾🎶

I am leaving overseas Monday morning IH with hubby and 2 kids.

Try to imagine the joy when I received a phone call from the real estate this Tuesday telling me our application is now accepted (to move again!) into another premises we had applied for (only a few blocks away from our present home, just half the price and size😄) 

You see 2 other times our applications were declined, because after research into who we are, they found out we have kh 14 kids, and there was no way they will have 14 kids in a 2 bedroom apt!

Go explain 10 of the 14 are married k"h and live overseas.

(Sometimes just a tiny bit of minor details is lost along the way of these important, major investigations!)

You can imagine our joy, when finally, since on this application THIS TIME  I had written ZERO for the amount of kids living with me, and I got the acceptance email less then 24 hours later!

             ZERO kids did it!

OMG. Is this for real?

I am going to have ZERO kids living with me now?

Is that my new found life?

Is this the end of all my 40 years of hard labor (14 real labours!) and the 'who ha' of raising kids, feeling like there's no tomorrow, the laughter the birthday parties, the beat the clock to make it to school on time.....and not to mention the big Shabbos table, my dream, the excitement, the love, the fight-solving, the late night talks, the constant buzz of activity, the constant family meetings/job duties, then the first child's farewell party to YESHIVA overseas excitement! And the rest of the kids  to follow overseas slowly  becoming a routine.....😥 sad and happy 😄. Very Mixed emotions indeed.

As the movers are taking away my precious household stuff (cuz that's all it is, is stuff. A collection of stuff accumulated the first 20 years of married life, and then trying to get rid of it the second 20 years!!!)

As they hold up each piece and ask for instruction, 

"mam, is this going with you?" 

I look at my husband for the 'nod' and say "whatever he says" because my heart doesn't allow me to utter the word NO.

I cannot say No to all the 1000s of Vhs family and kids videos accumulated over the 20 years, nor the old dusty super 8 projector (it's still outside waiting for another nostalgic  oldie, like me, to dust it off and take give it a home)

My husband reminds me...."Toby at the end we cannot even take a pair of socks with us..."

"When's the last time we used it or looked at it?"

They say if you haven't touched it or seen it for 6 months out it goes!!

Does anyone else sympathise with me? Hello!

I ask "but what about the stunning family photos on wood that we ran to pixie photos in Kmart for, at 6 pm (only time available) with crying babies and hungry kids, for 99cents a family shoot! (and they always talked us into getting the whole package deal....remember?)

I can't throw those away, you kidding me?

The emotions and memories running down my spine giving me absolute chills!

I almost felt a tiny bit of the emotional selection process, (please forgive me,)when they said "you go to the right and you to the left (to die)"

I couldn't part with the stuff!

It was more then stuff

It is to me, selecting life and death in a way.

My kids' accumulated school stuff they couldn't throw away all these years! Saved for "one day".

When is the "one day" supposed to be? 

Now? When their 60 year old parents move to a 2 bedroom flat with absolutely no room for a kitchen stool? 

Where, ally the 40 dishes that witnessed happy Shabbos and yomtov tables, were now distributed for free pick up because we are only 2 of us? 

Just try and feel the emotional turmoil of someone picking up our dear 21' Shabbos table, a table that once seated 40 people laughing and listening to the most inspirational dvar torahs from my husband, a table that took talent to set every Shabbos since we had such creative souls, experimenting different styles of expressing their inner creative self by the way they set the table!

A table that witnessed laughter and tears from every sort of human being, possible due to the variety of Shabbos guests we were honoured to have each week with us.

Watching that table go with all the memories attached to it, was more then heartbreaking, yet blended with a sense of satisfaction and completion. The feeling of completing a task, a mission accomplished. Mabe like completing a piece of art that took toil sweat and even tears, and then you sell it. The mixture of emotions. The deposits the withdrawals. 

It is a huge roller coaster of feelings that I have never experienced before.

I had never been asked to complete a form that required me to write ZER0 kids, either.

Wow

So, there I am going through this emotional washing machine, dryer and cleaners!, 

When a woman from our community pops over with hot soup that literally warmed my very thirsty mouth and heart, and a kind word saying, "oh it's nothing I should've brought you a whole meal"

She caught me between both houses since I MUST MOVE before the weekend (which is now!) since we're going oseas Monday and I accepted this lease just yesterday.

48 hours later (and 6 high energy Israeli backpackers!) my new place is already set up waiting for us all rest, to return from our daughters wedding trip. 

In our old home now, almost bed less, fridge less, and chair less, not to mention table less, and hot food less we are coping till Monday and will make it with your small acts of kindness! And my wonderful husband that can say yes or no without strings attached to enable us to move onto the future and let go of the past......(which is nearly impossible for me at least!)

Another woman texted me and said "anything you need I'll be there for you in a blink" 

Another woman said "come over,  I have 50 boxes you can use I'll even help you bring them with my van after 5!) These 3 acts of Chesed really made my ride so much smoother you will never know the huge impression it made on me. 

Melbourne community, you are awesome!

My husband has to keep reminding me, 

We are future oriented, look ahead not behind. 

We will be living in the future not the past.

Remember, we can't even take a pair of socks with us later......