Buying the house

People couldn't believe how unbelievably successful Donny had been in Israel. Even though he didn't have an official offer yet, I told SAR that we were going. We took a morning off work to go to the Israeli embassy in Manhattan and sign a yipuy koach (power of attorney) to our lawyer in Israel to do all the house-buying things for us. We got out of our 2 year lease on our house in N. Riverdale and told the landlord we'd be leaving June 30th. (The story of the lease on the house will be feature in its own blog, "Leasing by Accident". It is a 6-month long story of a basement full of mold and legal battle.) The plan was to send the lift in early July, and the kids and I would be in Baltimore at my parents for the summer. We planned to go on NBN's August 12th flight. Donny talked to the real estate broker and ironed out some details. At this point, one of my biggest worries was that we would need another trip to Israel, probably around Memorial Day, to sign the mortgage papers. I was worried about taking more time off school and having to leave the kids again. But overall, everything was going well. Microsoft would provide a relocation package which would be unbelievable helpful, including pay for the lift and cash for housing assistance and a rental car.