Debut

Wow! Pretty interesting that previous to this, my first post, I already had 32 views. Hmmm, I think I know who's responsible mostly. The truth is, the free time I have (when I would actually sit down to write at the computer) is occupied by perusing HIS blog!

Anyway. Looks like it's taken an 'escalation' to finally get me blogging.
Here things are pretty tense. But more in the way that Rafi G. describes it in The Country is Buzzing http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/
People and their emotions are more intense.
A close friend relayed to me how emotional she's been!
Driving through a machsom (IDF barrier) she handed the baby-faced soldier there a fistfull of lollipops, as this family always does, and the soldier's entire face lit up! She drove on and burst into tears.
My kids wanted to know if it was because she thought he could be the next 'Gilad.'

My kids daven for our chayalim that have been kidnapped. My oldest asks me, as he reaches for the morning paper if they've been found.
Even the younger ones' ears are perking up. "Eema," asks my 5 year-old, "what's a terrorist?" "They're the bad guys," I tell her. She's not done, "Is that why I heard the helicopters this morning?"
OY!
This is a child who until recently was afraid to go out and play in front of our house unacompanied for even a minute because she was afraid of 'the kidnapper' and this was months ago!

Saying extra tehillim is just 'normal.'
At my son's sleepover (no b-day or real reason other than that we got a tent--but that's for another post, possibly) the boys paused and started going around the table each leading in the recitation of a chapter of tehillim!
Even the little ones who know it by heart but can't yet read are encouraging it so that our chayalim will be returned.