We're here!!!

And yes, it feels SO good to be to this point.

We flew from Atlanta to London on Monday night and had the added bonus of having a 13 hour layover before our flight to Tel Aviv.  So we packed up Charis in her baby carrier, hopped on the Tube, and toted her around to see some of the more well-known places in London: Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, The London Eye, Westminster Abbey.  It was a bit of a whirlwind day (literally -- London epitomizes "blustery"), but what a fun side trip on the way to Israel.

Windblown, tired, and happy; and yes, I promise Charis is with us, too.

Another bonus of our trip to London for my husband was a quick visit to Stamford Bridge, the stadium where Chelsea F.C. plays.  Even though he isn't a huge Chelsea supporter, it was fun for him to see a "football" stadium in person.

After London, we flew overnight again to Tel Aviv, and at this point our bodies started getting quite confused about what time it was.  We didn't get much sleep, but we were thankful to have no problems passing through customs, retrieving our luggage, or catching a taxi to Jerusalem. Although we were pretty exhausted when we got here, we walked around the Old City for an hour or two this morning so Zach could re-acquaint himself with his surroundings and so I could see some of these incredible places for the very first time.

Currently, we are staying at a nice hostel near the center of town and will continue our apartment search tomorrow so we can set up house at a permanent place.  We spent considerable time at the hostel today, but we also got to spend our evening with our good friends Cal and Tiffany from Roseburg, who are here on a church tour with their family for the week! Incredible timing.  It was so fun (and surreal) to get to be with them in Jerusalem.

Whew.  We're so glad to be to this point and to have a bed (as opposed to an airplane seat) to sleep on.  Laila tov!