Friendship is a wonderful thing- so many levels and dimensions. So many friends from so many different times in our lives. Childhood, school age, camp, high school, seminary (gap year), college, workplace, community, and so on.

Friends are the family we get to choose. It’s really amazing when you meet someone, you either click or you don’t. It’s even more amazing when as a couple, all 4 spouses get along. Personalities can be so different or so similar, and somehow it just works.

In my life, I feel fortunate to have so many good friends that I can truly count on. Count on to tell them the good, the bad, and quite frankly, the ugly. Friends that have seen me laugh, cry, and laugh again. Sometimes laugh and cry at the same time. Point is, they’ve seen me at my best and worst. Oh G-d, I sound like a basket case. So what happens when you decide to move away to a new country, namely, Israel? How do you get through the pain of leaving these friends? And trust me, it’s painful.

I remember our last Shabbat lunch altogether. We hosted in our home. Food was eaten, wine was passed around, and dessert was enjoyed. And then they presented us, (read: Me), with a gift. A photobook. Such a special photobook with so many pictures and so many meaningful and sentimental quotes. Guess where all the pictures derived from? Yes, my Facebook account! 🙂 (Are emojis allowed in blogs? I’ll have to look that up.)

I was overwhelmed looking through at all the pictures. So many memories have accumulated between us. So many cherished moments to look back on. But what hurts, what really makes me feel sad, is that those would stop. 

I questioned myself, “Am I sure I really want to leave? We have such good friends here.” And I realized, “I am not stopping them from moving to Israel too, with us!” Yes, honestly it was painful to leave them. More so because I clearly have a major case of FOMO. Knowing that they’ll still be spending time together, without me. And I will only experience the outing or get together through video chat or WhatsApp messaging. (Grateful, though, I am to have those tools to communicate- more so for my kids than for me. How lucky we really are to live in the digital age!)

One such event that will take place is New Year’s Eve. (Don’t get all “It’s not our holiday” on me.. I believe fully in Rosh Hashana, our Jewish New Year) But, it was a fun night to hang out with friends. And we definitely had fun- I wish I still had those videos saved on my phone. They would’ve gone viral! 😉 I’m not sure I ever laughed harder in my life. And this year, they’re doing it all again. Just saying- I don’t think they’ll have as much fun without me! Or at least I will try to believe that!So moving to Israel isn’t ALL exciting- it is really hard. It is really hard to leave friends. (A post about family will come, don’t feel left out- I love you too!) I guess the one good thing about me not being there is that at least the men will stop trying to copy and make fun of my supposed picture pose. I don’t even know what they’re talking about! 😉But even with the difficulty of leaving friends, (and so many more friends that I love and cherish that aren’t pictured here), moving to Israel was the best decision. And maybe the more I post about how wonderful it is, maybe, just maybe, it’ll convince them, and all of you, to move here too..so I don’t have to have a horrible case of FOMO. And so we can spend next New’s Year Eve altogether..because I’m due for a really good laugh!!

Ok, Esther, Julie, and Stacey? Miss you guys!! 😉