In less than a week we will land in Israel for the first time since moving to Perth exactly two years ago on Australia Day (we missed the fireworks by only a couple of hours). The world has changed so much since the last time we went on a plane, and WA was the perfect getaway during these two years.
Ofir was six months old when we left Israel. She could sit, but not yet crawl, she had two tiny teeth in the bottom of her mouth, and that is basically the last time our family saw her for real.
Tom and I haven't changed too much, but she has tripled her weight, grew 25cm tall, gained 18 more teeth, learned to walk, run, jump, dance, sing, make jokes, "read" stories and have an actual conversation! She is practically a little person now.
If someone told me that we won't be able to see our family for two years if we leave at this critical time, I would reconsider this huge step. But no one warned us that this pandemic that started just a few months ago will shut us out from the world for two year. Thank god no one did.
Now, after going through these times, surviving the distance without visits and without any help, moving to Perth especially in that critical time was the best thing we could have done.
While the rest of the world was struggling in endless quarantines (even inside Australia), masks, deaths and fear we lived a pretty normal life, travelling inside WA, meeting people, no masks in public places, a life that people don't know they exist by now. And for that - I am thankful.
It seems like this is the perfect time to travel back. Numbers of cases are starting to rise here and after the borders open up in a few weeks it will be a different world in here than what we have known so far - the world that everyone else already knows.
We had no idea what this will do to us, we matured as people, as parents, as professionals, we learned more about ourselves and each other than we would have learned if we'd stayed in the same place. We transformed our way of thinking and resolved our problems by communicating and supporting each other, and this physical distance from our families only brought us closer together, with us and with them.
The most interesting thing will be to see Ofir's reaction to all these people that she knows only from video chats, and their shock when they see this little tornado come out of the screen.
We are all very excited.
Will be back in March in Australia, fingers crossed.
See you soon!
Maayan,
maayana.photography@gmail.com
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