Busiest month in my life

---

A miracle as happened in Nazareth, A 30 people workshop is taking place in the Fauzi Azar Inn.
The Inn that was open only 4 month ago can now accommodate 30 people in 6 exotic rooms, we cater 3 meals a day in what use to be the biggest bakery in the north part of Palestine and is now the Inn's dinning room… there are 2 conference rooms, wireless internet connection, roof top bar and all that in 4 month!!!
But more even more important Shlomit is now my legal wife, After 10 years of partnership and 5 month into the pregnancy we decided to make it "official" and in the first day of September got married in Cyprus with just the two of us attending the civilian ceremony.

I was waiting long time to write this post and got much to write about and to share. The last month was one of the busiest in my life so far and with many emotional ups and down.
• The moving pregnancy and the realization of me going to be a father soon with all the involved responsibilities,
• Our marriage in Cyprus
• The Inn's renovation under the deadline of the group's arrival day
• Shlomit Birthday

All that in one month was almost more than I could handle

I'm sitting in the Inn's hall at the moment, the group study downstairs and Vladimir is cleaning the house.
I'll start with Vladi, my second hand that with out his help I couldn't make it this far and is now working with me for over a month. He got here after a mutual friend told me that is friend got no place to stay in. I gave him a dorm bed for 40 shekel for 4 nights. It was obvious that he needed the money, so I asked him if he want to help me doing the cleaning so he can stay for free. Now he is working a full day, doing all the maintenance, cleaning, and keeping of the place. He gives me the peace of mind to go to Shlomit almost every night and though it's sound like a clichי I don't know what I was doing with out him. Emigrating from Ukraine 4 years ago and not speaking much Hebrew he is my best friend and biggest supporter for the time being.

The pregnancy is moving along fine, we had a regular check yesterday and all the results are exactly as they should be. Hope it will stay this way. Shlomit belly is getting bigger and bigger and I can fill the movements of my future son, it's all very thrilling.

Not everything went smoothly in the last month and I had some difficult and stressing time. When the 30 people group booked it was under the pink world I paint for them of how the place is going to be since I had only 1 and a half showers and toilets back than, no sitting area, just 5 basic rooms with 18 beds.
I promise them 6 rooms with no more than 5 people in each one, dining room, 5!!! Sitting area for small groups to work in, wireless internet connection and I had only 2 month and no money to make all this happen including finding the financial resources.

The day they confirmed there arrival day due to September 17th I had just less than 2 month. I hired my neighbor to start renovation the room downstairs. Till that day the room was a dump place, wet and smelly. I hired architect to design the new plumbing, electricity and reconstruction. In the meanwhile I had to host the guest that I had during this time and to support Shlomit.

Not sleeping with Shlomit every night is the hardest thing of all. The feeling that I'm not there for here and that too much of my energy is devoted to the business and not to her is something we both need to deal with.

I started writing this post 8 days ago, so please forgive me for the break. Usually I'm planning how the post is going to be like and what it's going to include. I'm trying to build it like a chapter in a book. The break surely not helping this…

The last week of August was almost a disaster. The renovation wasn't getting anywhere, I had almost no guest and small little incidents were damaging my confidence.
One night I got a late call at about 0200 am of a couple that are looking for a room, they gave a name of someone who stayed at the Inn a week before. I woke up, gave them the instruction and went to the market to bring them. When I saw them something looked fishy. They had no luggage, no passports; the gay was French and the girl Israeli. I start asking them what are they doing here so late and got more and more suspicion about them.
When we almost got to the Inn I told them that I'm very sorry but I can't give them a room, and that next time they will have to book a head and must bring there passports. The girl did show me here employ card from Tel-Aviv Municipality…

So why was I so suspicious?
Tareq the manager of Nazareth Truism and Culture association once told me:" Nazareth is famous for 3 things: Carpenters, handcrafts and rumors. While the first 2 are in decline the rumors are flourishing"
One of the rumors that spread all over Nazareth when I opened the Inn was that it's a whore house… Sad but true. I wasn't willing to give anyone making this one real.

Any way my mode was pretty low and on Shlomit birthday on August 30th I was so much out of energy that I couldn't celebrate with her and bought her no present… which just made everything worse.

On September 1st we flew to Cyprus, Shlomit & I, and got married in the City Hall. We rented a car and drove to the Elysium, a beautiful resort to celebrate our new marriage and our 10 years of relationship.

The resort was amazing and we both enjoyed it very much. The problem was that my mind was into the not going renovation and the tight schedule I was in.
I can describe it as a huge panic attack or wave with no way to escape. In one point I was worried that I'm getting into a depression (Now the story got a twist).

I suffered from 3 period of depression in my life all of them while being a solder in the Israeli army.
They lasted 2-3 month each and what I remember the most is that everything I ate had no taste at all. All the food I tried was tasteless. Each morning when I woke up and eating my breakfast I wished that this time I'll feel the taste of the food. You can imagine the big disappointment with everyday that after the first bit I, realizing that still nothing.

I'll tell you more about the last 2 weeks of preparation but first I want to explain why I was just telling you on my depression.
I see around me many people that are suffering from the same symptoms and are doing and changing nothing in their life stile. They are waiting for this to go.
From my experience it won't go unless you do something about your life. What helped me recover from the last panic attack was the idea of seeing life as a game. There are no losers or winners and we just need to do our best to enjoy the time we got on this game because we can't no when the "GAME OVER" screen will come.

Coming back from Cyprus I took the challenge I had and with the support of Shlomit, Vladi, family and friend where ready for the group arrival at Saturday September 17th, 1700 in the afternoon just in time to welcome them with Arab Coffee.


After my parents visited me on September 10th, my father was worried that I'm not going to make it. When Vladi told me that there is too much to do I explain him that we are building a puzzle. It took me 5 minutes to explain what a puzzle is. In Russian it's called Mosaic. Since that we both understand one another in a deeper level. I explained him that we are building a Mosaic and then went to the diary and open the page in September 17th, and marked the afternoon, saying that when the Mosaic is going to be ready!!!

If even one person was missing the last weekend of preparation we wouldn't have make it. Shlomit was there as always. Maayan My sister came and I learn a new side of here. The work and energy she brought with here were critical. Mindy who answer my call on Saturday morning and came with Michal her daughter and helped us clean and decorate the Inn, Vladi who came back from church just in time. Gabi and his brother that painted the dinning room and with what ever there was do.

It was an extraordinary weekend. With the first people of the group to arrive we new that it was worth it. There smiles and astonishing face make it clear that it's going to be an excellent week for everyone

---