Running on only three cylinders.

STATUS UPDATE: WE ARE STAYING IN ISRAEL UNTIL THE END OF THE KIDS' SCHOOL YEAR.  IN JULY, WE WILL BE HEADING BACK TO THE U.S.

Hello Diary!

My wife and I have been going back-and-forth as to whether we are "missing something" in deciding to leave Israel.  Obviously there is SO MUCH to miss, but I am merely mentioning as to our life here versus our life back home before we made Aliyah.  I know this is offensive for me to say, especially since there are so many people who would give anything to make Aliyah and cannot for whatever reason -- family responsibilities, work, financial constraints -- and I fully understand your anger at our "flippant" attitude towards staying here versus going back.  It seems almost silly to have spent so much effort, time, and money to transition our lives here only to move back, but it is what it is.

I don't want to rehash everything -- there are so many reasons to stay -- GOOD REASONS to stay!  But somewhere in my heart, I want to go home.  I miss so many things about home, and I don't know why, but I always feel as if I am running on three cylinders here in Israel.

I could say more, but the jist of the article is this:  "I FEEL AS IF MY LIFE IS RUNNING ON THREE CYLINDERS HERE."  Shopping?  Not so easy.  Currency and banking transactions?  Difficult (I am always having problems with my bank accounts at home in the US locking me out, I feel as if it is because I am in Israel [more likely, my wife is convinced that I am on some terrorist "list" somehow because I yelled at some bank clerk or something while calling from Israel], so everything I do gets red-flagged, delayed, and sometimes cancelled, even though I provide my credentials and prove I am who I claim to be]).

Then there is the language barrier.   Very difficult.  Bank statements? Credit Card statements? Unintelligible.  Half the time I don't even know what the charges are for.  Taxes?  Rental Taxes?  No clue.  Running my law firm? VERY difficult.  I'll get back to this.

The crux of the issue is that I feel as if it is very difficult to live with one foot here in Israel, and the other foot straddled across the globe in the US.

NOTE: Image taken from Pixbay, CC0 Public Domain, Free for commercial use, No attribution required.  Link.