An Actual Siren

It's taken me a few days, but I'm now ready to write about it. On the kids' first day back at school (Sunday) Ruby dropped them off on his way to work. They (except for Petachya) usually ride their bikes, but Leah was a bit anxious. Plus, they were running late because they weren't used to getting up and out so early. The boys went to a school in Yerushalayim where the 11th graders there ran programs for them. At 10:00, Leah calls me - she has a stomach ache, can I come get her. So, I walk over to school. When I get there, I happen to see the school counselor who had talked with her about her fears, and she suggested it might be nerves. That made a lot of sense to me, given that there had already been a drill in school that morning. As I walked to Leah's classroom, there was another drill. The Home Front Command had placed about 15 or 20 soldiers in school whose sole purpose was to get the kids in the saferooms fast. They were milling around the common areas to help individual students on the way from one class to the other or to the office. I joined the students in the saferoom, and was able to convince Leah to stay. They were getting let out early (starting at 12:50, they let the kids out gradually so they weren't outside at the same time), and it would be less scary to stay in school, because she would be occupied. Leah made me promise to be there early to pick her up so she wouldn't have to wait. No problem. At 12:30 I left the house to walk to school. I called Ruby on the way to see how his day is going, as I often do when I'm walking around Yad Binyamin. As we're on the phone, I hear a siren. A real one. The area I was in was not the new area, where all the houses have saferooms. It was the old area, where they don't. I ran to the nearest house and banged on the door anyway, figuring I'd rather be in a group now for support. There was not answer, so I lay down on their front porch and covered my head with my hands, as we had been instructed to do. When the siren was over, I hear two distant "boom"s. I had just read that morning that all rockets "boom" twice - once upon impact and once upon explosion. Ruby stayed with me on the phone the entire time, and I began reciting chapter 121 of Psalms, as I mentioned in the previous post. After a few minutes, I heard a car go by, so I got up. On my way to school I saw people coming out of buildings to close car doors they had left open and pick up bags they had dropped running to a shelter. At school, I saw the principal, who was smiling - they had gotten everyone in saferooms in plenty of time. The rocket, I heard, had landed in Be'er Tuvia, near Kiryat Malachi, about a 10 minute drive away. Leah was shaken, but fine - no tears, and a lot of targeted questions.

In Sderot and Ashkelon, they do this several times a day, and the "booms" are much closer.

This morning, when I went to put Petachya's lunch in his backpack, I saw a note. His school was asking for donations of snacks and instant soups to send to the soldiers in Gaza. I immediately put a bag of pretzels and a soup in his bag (of course he wanted to eat the pretzels, but I promised him some later). When we got to school, Petachya proudly presented the food to his teacher, who was impressed with our alacrity. I told her that I hope it will be over soon, so I wanted to make sure to send stuff before it was over.

Some of you have expressed a desire to help the Israeli soldiers. They like snacks. Light packages that they could carry with them. Instant soups or meals that just need hot water are good to eat when they're in camp. This morning, I received an email that they need warm underclothes and hygiene products. I'm sure there are many organizations with websites that are collecting these products. If any of you know of a specific group, please post the link in the "comments" section of this blog. Please help in any way you can. These are our boys, and they need to know we support them and love them. They need to know they are not alone.