Another one on "My Firsts" list

Hello to all, you, people, out there, in the big world!

You have all probably heard of a famous saying : "Life starts at the end of your comfort zone."  Today, once again, I have decided to step out of MY comfort zone and start doing something that I was  curious about for quite a while , but never had the confidence to fulfil that curiosity.


Like in many other decisions I need to make in my life, my default thinking was: It's now or never!


So....here I am, writing my very first ever, blog post!!!! Yahooo! I really hope it's the beginning of a wonderful journey for me and I will do my best to keep it interesting for you too, my friends.


Just few short words about myself and I promise I will be very short ...and this is just to be able  to better understand where I am coming from in my views, opinions, mind-set, etc...


So who am I?????


 I am, basically, an ordinary Jewish girl who was taken by life circumstances to some very unordinary places and different realities. Born in late 70's in communist Ukraine, USSR, in a little town of Chernovtsi. I was growing up to be a perfect product of that environment , being a good pupil in school, dedicated pioneer of Youth communist movement and an excellent athlete. At this young age, my parents tried to wrap up my life in "cotton balls," creating an illusion of perfect childhood, which  still IS perfect in my memory. It wasn't until 1986, that I have first started hearing secret discussions at home about how it is time to "leave" to a place called "Haaretz" (Hebrew for Israel). The main reason they were using this particular word is because they didn't want me to understand. It was a top secret! So what had happened that year???  Chernobyl nuclear disaster! It had a great impact on my family's immediate and long term decisions.
Step by step, in February, 1990, we have landed in The Holy Land. It was a great shock to all systems, physically and mentally. I could possibly only compare it to an adjustment that astronauts are required to go through in space. Only they don't need to learn a new language or adjust to writing from right to left...and I needed to! Not only this, but from being a popular girl in school, I went to being an alien, at only 11.5 years old! But you all know what they say: Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger! After 24 years of rubbing side by side with  the best and worst of my own people, fulfilling all of my civil duties, educational and personal goals, Israel is definitely a home, or should I say: THE home!!!  And that's where begins the story of my conscious mature life. I would have said "adult", but that sounds too old:-)
I'm fortunate to have someone to walk with along the challenging path of life, who is also "to blame" for many interesting challenges that have shaped up my life, and that's my dear hubby Mark. We have produced two little people, who are a "non-stop interactive entertainment" in our lives: My son Barr, 11 years old and my daughter, Maayan, 6 years old princess.
I'm in one of women's most classical professions..., and noooo, it is not prostitution!!!!!! It's Nursing:-) And Mark is a civil engineer. Specializing in infrastructure, roads and tunnels, his job took us extensively around the world, to not very developed places, where his services are most needed. That is how I found myself in Nigeria, living in a "golden cage" with my two years old son. This experience influenced heavily on my views about the world and changed my priorities in life significantly. I'm sure that you will feel that impact in between the lines in my future posts.


Years after, my daughter was born and we have decided that radical change is needed! We can't spend all our lives in "money race". Search for a better future for the children, security, life style, quality over quantity and mainly, new exciting opportunity, dominated our decision of moving yet again, to ,literally, "The End of the World".


Here I am, sitting in my new beautiful house in one of the central suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, and writing these lines and reflecting on my on-going Kiwi dream!