Israeli Independence Day

First, a couple of Israel moments today - in no special order:

- We were walking back to cousin Debra's house, walking through town at around 7 PM (very close to the limit of time when one may pray the afternoon prayers) and a religious soldier with a backpack and gun in hand, tucked himself into a corner in the middle of the street and began to pray.

- As we drove though the machsom (security checkpoint) on our way home (when driving to Jerusalem we have to pass through one checkpoint going there and coming home) the soldier leaned into our car window to make sure everyone and everything was hakol beseder (everything OK) and reminded us, "S'firat Haomer." (yeah, not gonna try to explain that one!)

- NED was in the daglanut last night. Every year on Yom Hatzmaut, the 8th grade girls do a flag performance. They do like a march to music and wave the flags. Sorta kinda, hard to explain. It was awesome to watch her with her Bnei Akiva shirt and waving the Isreali flag!

Since coming back from the states, I have had this almost unexplainable feeling of, "This is where I belong." I just feel at home. Yes, it's a difficult place to live and I have my hardships, but something just feels so right. And I feel so lucky to be able to live here.

The Rabbi of the yishuv spoke (in hebrew, of course) at the Yom Hatzmaut ceremony last night and said in broken English, that this is not INDEPENDENCE Day, but it's DEPENDENCE Day because we are dependent on the Almighty. I liked that thought.

Back to work tomorrow.

I was assigned a new case with a kid that was diagnosed with OCD - Obssessive Compulsive Disorder. They want me to see the family all together. There are 5 kids, plus the parents. I know nothing about OCD, nor how to do family therapy. I guess it's time to learn!