I can’t really believe I am writing this but I am going to Israel.  Mum mentioned about 2 weeks back that she might use some of her frequent flyer points to go and visit Gem and that she could lend me some.  It was totally out of the blue, I had never even thought about it, but now here I am two weeks later with flights booked for March 6 til March 27.  It has been such a spontaneous decision for both us, which is quite out of character but we are as you can imagine very excited.

I have angsted a lot over the decision to go.  Three weeks is a really long time away from Nina.  She will be fine with Martin of course but I worry that she will feel worried about me being away and not coming back.  More importantly though I will just miss her desperately.  It’s also not the best timing as I don’t have a job and thus not much money so big overseas trips does feel a little bit crazy.  It feels like I am asking a lot of Martin.  He has been very generous in encouraging me to go but I realise I am not very good at accepting such generosity from him and my mother for that matter.  I’ve never travelled like this before.  I’ve only ever gone to Peru to for long stretches of time firstly to volunteer and then to visit family.  I did travel a bit on the way to other places and while I was there in Peru but this feels totally different.  But in my quiet times I really felt I should learn to accept generosity and abundance, it teaches us a lot about grace.  I also wanted to make a decision based on courage not fear so I decided to go.

I have been lying awake at night worrying a little but I am really going to try not to do that and just feel really excited.  I simply can’t believe I will be visiting the Holy Land and will be seeing Gem as well and learning so much about this country.  Looking at pictures today it sure looks like an amazing place.  Also, really excited to be doing a bit of travel with my mum and Gem.  We never did anything like this as kids so I think it’s going to be a special time.