And so to pastures new...

It's the moment that I knew would come round quickly and as much as I had been craving this moment since AandE were born I was also dreading it.

Yes I'm talking about the need for the girls to gain their own independence, make friends of their own not just my friends' children and begin their educational career.

Since we have now moved to Israel I had two options. Either to send them to a private nursery in English or send them straight to nursery in Hebrew. I consulted friends, relatives, various nurseries and in the end went with the most cost effective option (huge consideration for two) as well as the option that would help them the most. So yes, I guess it was sink or swim, and we opted for full day-care in Hebrew.

Ideal for working parents they can go any time from 7am until 3.30pm. They have to be in by 8.30am for breakfast so AandE tend to arrive at 8am allowing me time to get to my Hebrew language course.

We are now one month in to their new regime and I can look back and honestly say it hasn't been that bad. Had we stayed in England I had all these marvellous ideas that they would not be going to nursery with a dummy, and their pink bunnies would certainly be staying at home. However, as I'm not a completely cruel Mummy there was no way I could expect them at age 2.5 to go off to nursery in a foreign language in completely new surroundings for a whole day including a sleep without the things they love most. So they are very much together with an assortment of dummies and bunnies and do you know what, they are thriving.

The language barrier has not been a problem. Their nursery leader is lovely. I know that they eat lunch, I know they have a sleep every afternoon and every so often they bring home lovely pieces of art for me to stick on the fridge.

Do they play with any other children? I have no idea. Are they happy? They seem to be. There are still a few stifled tears from both of them every morning but I know that's just for me and as soon as I leave they are completely fine.

How am I feeling now that I don't have to look after them 24/7? Liberated is a word that springs to mind. I do miss them but I also love that they have a packed day and I haven't had to entertain them. And of course the best part of daycare is that at
3.30 when I arrive to collect them I get two huge smiles and two little girls who almost knock me over every time with their hugs. Priceless.

A lot can happen in 3 months

I haven't had a chance to blog for 3 months but I do have some excellent reasons:

1. After deliberating the pros and cons of moving our family from England to Israel for the past number of years we decided to seize the moment and put plans into action in early June and moved country in mid August.

2. With A & E forever under my feet, any spare time was spent de-cluttering 12 years of junk from our home.

3. We had to rent out our house in the UK and find a property to rent in Israel.

4. Eldest daughter and boy in the middle spent a lot of time planning goodbye parties, photos with friends and special times with their special friends.

5. DH was working flat out on his own business venture and didn't have a moment to help me.

6. Once we had moved it took almost two weeks for us to achieve Internet connection not to mention all the other beurocracy we have had to deal with.

And now here we are, two weeks into the start of the school year and my family have moved on in leaps and bounds and we have all overcome some major challenges.

We packed up and stored most of the contents of our house in the UK.

Four days before we moved we threw a garden party for all of our kids friends and then an hour after the children left our friends arrived for a BBQ.

We packed 18 suitcases, 6 large hand luggage bags, 2 matching Peppa Pig backpacks and enough snacks that could have fed the entire plane load of passengers.

We said our final tearful goodbyes, boarded the plane, landed, were processed as new immigrants in Israel, spent a night in Jerusalem, received our Israeli ID cards at the Kotel and arrived in our new home.

Two weeks after arriving eldest daughter and boy in the middle started in their new school and A and E started in daycare for the first time ( but that needs a blog post all of its own).

Looking back it has been a whirlwind of excitement, fears, tears, new beginnings and for me the realisation of a dream I have had since I was 7 years old.

I am extraordinarily proud of my whole family and I hope this will be the start of a great new adventure for all.