Community Jackpot part 1

As promised,  I have a post about the new community we have joined.  But first  let's back up.  We came to Israel from a fabulous community in NJ.  It was a smallish community where we all knew each other,  helped each other and welcomed anyone who was new.  At least that is how we felt about it.  The one thing we felt was lacking in our community were more children.  We tried to do our part in populating the community and shul,  but there just were not tons and tons of kids for our children.  They each made wonderful friends there,  but we always bemoaned the lack of more kids and families. We lived there for 12 years and we're welcomed in immediately.  We left a lot of good friends and memories behind.

One of the many reasons that we made aliyah was that we wanted our kids to have some of the experiences that we had as children.  Namely,  having tons of kids in walking distance and being able to just go out and keep themselves busy. We wanted them to be able to walk places,  ride their bikes around,  etc....  Basically,  have more freedom.

Back to our new community.  It seems like we hit the jackpot on this one.  When we decided to move to Modiin,  we then had to choose a neighborhood.  From my understanding,  most Anglos (someone from an English speaking country)  move to one neighborhood.  We did not want that neighborhood.  Then we heard about another great neighborhood.  But it seems like everyone there only has younger kids.  So in the end we decided that wouldn't be right either.

We don't have any family in Israel,  but we do have some good friends.  And some of those friends live here in Modiin (you know who you are!)  so in the end  we focused on moving to their neighborhood.  Rentals are in high demand,  and the choices were few and far between for a rental in this neighborhood,  especially if we wanted more than three bedrooms.  Eventually,  we found a place,  not  knowing much about the street aside from the fact that it is close to our friends.

Not to skip to the end,  but I realize  that this has gotten very long.  Before we even moved in,  hubby met all of the neighbors who were having a block party to say goodbye to the family who was vacating the house we are renting.  And as soon as we moved in,  we were welcomed immediately.  People left us welcome cards,  baked us  cakes,  invited us to wonderful meals,  cooked us food,  stopped in to say

hello,  helped us break down our boxes,  and on and on.  And we have only been living here for a week.

And the best part.  Our new street  has it's own WhatsApp group.  That's right.  The neighbors WhatsApp each other.  It's awesome and funny and novel.  And so far,  we love it here.