Dispatches from Camp: Making Friends

There's a special place in the world for the children of Jewish professionals.

(sometimes known as RK's - Rabbis' Kids - but I'm thinking of the children of all Jewish professionals!)

They live in a unique world...they are often in a fishbowl, observed on all sides by congregants. Everyone knows their names, they are public property in the synagogue.

They are the kids who know all the blessings, who can answer almost every question in Sunday School, and whose parents don't let them slack off on their Hebrew homework.

But they are also the kids whose parents love Judaism, who make it a part of their lives, who bring it alive in ways that many of their classmates never see.

Jewish summer camp is full of all kinds of kids. 

Jewish kids of all shapes and kinds, with all manner of background and experience. 

But for my children, camp is a uniquely special place. 

Even though they are not quite old enough to realize it, they are making friends that will last their lifetime. And many of those friends (although thankfully not all) are also children of Jewish professionals.

I hope that these are the friends that they can call when they are frustrated and fed up with their parents.
Their parents who are running synagogues.
And those friends will understand.

This is what I hope for my children.

(Pictures of Sam and his friend, whose mama is a Jewish educator and also serving on faculty at camp with me. They are hunting bugs and being spies...all at the same time.)

A Guest Poster (sorta)

It's late, it's almost the last day of NaBloPoMo...and here I am...

I haven't written many of these "filler" posts but...motzei Shabbat is as good of a time as any.

So, I went looking for a funny video to share with you instead of writing a post.

But really, please come back tomorrow since I'll be posting a giveaway from RotemGear!

Oh, AND the guest who is looking over my shoulder as I write this, Rabbi Anne Persin, wants to say hi to all my loyal readers. {{{{waving}}}}

Okay, so here's the video that Anne decided I should post today. In case you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty funny:

It takes a village...

We were so lucky when our oldest was born. My husband and I were in rabbinical school and we were in a large community of students and friends.

Most of our friends were young-marrieds, singles, and almost no one had kids. We were among the first.

Definitely having a baby is hard. The first one is a total shocker. Life changes. Those first few months, that first year are a killer.

David was born in November. I wrote and handed in my thesis proposal between his birth and January. I handed in my completed rabbinic thesis three months after his first birthday.

We rarely went out at night but we had a great co-op daycare center on campus. Our weekly poker game continued, almost uninterrupted by David's birth, at our house. We put him to bed at 7pm. Poker started at 7:30. Some nights we had as many as 25 people in our house. The baby slept on upstairs, unaware.

Today someone reminded me of all that. She has her first child now, almost one year old. It's been, as it is for all of us, a rough first year. They regularly speak about us, she says, and how we made it "look easy." We should have offered to help you out more, she told me, if only we had realized how hard it really was!

And yes, it was hard. But I have to say, I can't imagine doing it any other way. I'm so glad we "hit the ground running" as my husband likes to say, by having a baby before we were out in the "real world."

We were so lucky. Our child was passed from future rabbi to future rabbi...all the time. These people are my best friends in the world, they are my family. They were the ones who visited me in the hospital as I labored. (Imagine...the hospital was next-door to our school. At lunchtime, I had a full room of friendly visitors as labor progressed....can you believe it!?) I wish we'd all had our kids together. I wish I could have held their babies in their newness. Now they're all out there, having their babies, spread all around the country. I wish I were with each one of them, sharing their experiences as they shared mine.

I love my life. But sometimes I miss my friends and their babies.
Welcome to the world, Hazel Zahara. I wish I was there to kiss your beautiful little head.

Haveil Havalim is UP!

FrumeSarah did her thing and let me tell you, it's great.

Go check it out. So much to read, so little time!

Miracles... Chanukah Countdown Continues

The holiday of Chanukah is all about celebrating miracles. And let me tell you, I have seen miracles in the past few days.

I was blessed to spend the weekend with two of my dearest and most wonderful friends and their gorgeous new twins, Eitan and Yael...(like the name? I do!), who were born back in August in a very dramatic fashion at about 2 1/2 pounds each. It was finally time to celebrate their Namings this weekend so I flew in, but Mother Nature had other plans for us and the snow/ice/sleet mix forced us to cancel the event on Sunday. Even in cancelling, though, was the small miracle of spending the whole day hanging out with these beautiful miracle babies! They are now almost 10 pounds each and doing great. What an incredible miracle...I couldn't stop looking at them!

So my best shot Monday is this little beauty...Eitan napping with his fingers curled up in the blankie. (I didn't ask for permission for their cute little faces so no posting of those!)



What miracles did you see this week?

P.S. For anyone that I confused with yesterday's post -- there was one day left to enter the giveaway, not one day left until Chanukah. Chanukah starts TUESDAY night.

See next post for Chanukah Giveaway Winner!!!

Previous Chanukah Countdown Party Posts:

How do you spell Chanukah?
What works for me on Chanukah
Have a Green Chanukah
Chanukah Chaiku
Applesauce vs. SourCream

Mazel Tov Mandy and Everett!

I just got back from the most beautiful

wedding...more tomorrow;-)